A Discourse On The Method Of Rightly Conducting The Reason And Seeking Truth In The Sciences Hardcover – September 10, 2010

This book is highly theoretical and best suited forreading by an academic audience.Descartesdiscusses the mechanics of knowledge acquisitionand the clarity of thought.The author speaks of things that can be reasonedwell enough but tough to demonstrate empirically.He recognizes the limitations of making too lofty goalsin favor of settling for less change in the order ofthings and more stability. At points, he wonders aboutGod and the construct of a perfect being. Specifically,he praises the miracle of creation.Descartes provides a considerable discourse on themechanics of blood flow through the various heartchambers and pathways of veins. This discussionis no less fascinating than a standard lecture in amedical school or advanced class in Anatomy/Physiology.Overall, the book is very instructive although thecontents could require more than one reading toappreciate fully. The book would be perfect forstudents of the sciences and humanities everywhere.

Rene Descartes was one of the mathematician philosophers from the same era as Sir Isaac Newton when natural philosophy and the scientific method were developing into modern Western science. Many of today's cosmological discoveries and theoretical physics have their foundations in the Greek thinkers and the post Middle Ages Western theories and discoveries. Descartes needs to be given more recognition in the present day for his ideas which 20th and 21st Century cosmologists like Hawking have claimed as their own concepts, like changing the names vortex to .black hole, aether to dark matter. Descartes postulate space had fluid like properties. I have now seen a theoretical physicist postulating the same with no bow to Descartes. Descartes postulated that space was filled with vortexes and astronomers have now believe every galaxy has one at its center, but the name has been changed to Black Hole and Hawking claims that as his idea. He is a brilliant mind and deserves all the credit awarded to him, but why not mention Descartes when talking about arriving at what are being presented as new theories? All science is built upon that of the predecessors but I think Einstein is the only one the modern theoretical physicists acknowledge while pursuing the Noble Prize.

At first I wasn't going to read this one, but when I started to read Meditations on First Philosophy Descartes referred to this several times, so I decided to quickly read it. Instead of doing the smart thing and getting a better translation, I found and read this public domain one. In hind sight after reading the superior Hackett version translated by Cress, it would have been better to just wait for that one (or pay the small price).As for the Discourse, it's pretty interesting, Descartes decides to throw way everything he's learned and approach everything as geometric proofs where he builds on top of what he can completely infer. At first he rejects all senses and perceptions because they could be an illusion, the only thing he knows is, "I think therefore I am" (or if you read the Cottingham version, 'I am thinking therefore I exist'). From this he bases everything. He later goes to present his own modified version of the ontological argument, basically he thinks of something more perfect than himself, since he knows there is something more perfect then this, then eventually the most perfect thing is God. I'm sure many theists will agree with him that perhaps God is the only other thing they know is true, but I'm not sure how the thought of a most perfect being is more apparent than everything he experiences around him. I realize that his could be in illusion, but the thought of a most perfect being is more concrete? If someone doesn't perceive of this most perfect being instead assumes that everything is partially flawed does god cease to exist?

enjoyed reading it

It was well written and easy to understand. The points were clear, concise and to the point. The last chapter summarized the previous.

Bought this for my 15 year old daughter and she is really enjoying reading it - who knew?

Great book.

Descartes set the foundation by which all problems could be answered accurately. If you don't agree, Descartes would say you we're doing it wrong