Epistemology

Discourse on the Method

♡+

René Descartes

1637 · 59 pages

Descartes' short, revolutionary manifesto in which he resolves to doubt everything that can be doubted and, from that radical scepticism, rebuild knowledge on the single unshakeable foundation of the thinking self — cogito, ergo sum. Written in French for a general audience, the Discourse outlines the four rules of his method, sketches a provisional morality, proves the existence of God and the immortality of the soul, and explains why he delayed publishing his fuller scientific work. Simultaneously a philosophical autobiography and a bold new programme for inquiry, it marks the decisive break from scholasticism and the opening of the modern era in philosophy.