This is going to be the first time I try to write notes on a book I’ve read like this, so please excuse my idiocy. You can send any critiques or corrections to phonolagnia@gmail.com.
I will be trying to summarize what I’ve read so far from René Descartes’ Discourse on the Method (full title: Discourse on the Method of Rightly Conducting the Reason, and Seeking Truth in the Sciences, I find it to be quite a charming title for some reason)
PART I
As the prefatory notes state, the first part is dedicated to various considerations touching the science. This part begins with the statement that good sense is found equally distributed among all men, and that differences in opinion arise not from people possessing a larger or smaller share of “reason”, but rather that our thoughts are conducted along different ways and that we fix our attention to different things. He remarks that he believes that “reason” or “good sense” is found complete in each individual. I assume this means he believes that every individual has the faculties to properly apply reason, but the key point is in “rightly” making use of those faculties.
He also remarks that he holds the common opinion of philosophers at that time, that “the difference of greater and less holds only among the accidents, and not among the forms or natures of individuals of the same species”. I was confused by this statement at first and had to do some research to fully understand it. What Descartes is referring to here is the metaphysics of scholastic-Aristotelian philosophy, that analyzed things into substance (the “essential quality” of a thing), nature (the defining characteristics of a thing), and the formerly mentioned accidents, which are properties that can vary without changing what a thing fundamentally is (size, color, weight, etc.)
What I would then assume from this is that he states that reason is found complete in each individual, only differing in secondary ways. The rest of this part is mainly filled out with disclaimers on the following text, such that his method is not meant to be taken as precepts, for they were built on his own subjective experience, and may be subject to failure when employed by other individuals. Still, he seems very satisfied with the methods and maxims he has developed. Then, he describes some of his early life, marked by feeling the necessity to travel to gain more reliable experience of the world and judge better the customs native to his homeland, which made him grow skeptic towards things that are learned merely by custom or tradition.
Fragments I liked:
"I know how very liable we are to delusion in what relates to ourselves, and also how much the judgments of our friends are to be suspected when given in our favor."
I was aware that the languages taught in them are necessary to the understanding of the writings of the ancients; that the grace of fable stirs the mind; that the memorable deeds of history elevate it; and, if read with discretion, aid in forming the judgment; that the perusal of all excellent books is, as it were, to interview with the noblest men of past ages, who have written them, and even a studied interview, in which are discovered to us only their choicest thoughts; that eloquence has incomparable force and beauty; that poesy has its ravishing graces and delights; that in the mathematics there are many refined discoveries eminently suited to gratify the inquisitive, as well as further all the arts an lessen the labour of man; that numerous highly useful precepts and exhortations to virtue are contained in treatises on morals; that theology points out the path to heaven; that philosophy affords the means of discoursing with an appearance of truth on all matters, and commands the admiration of the more simple; that jurisprudence, medicine, and the other sciences, secure for their cultivators honors and riches; and, in fine, that it is useful to bestow some attention upon all, even upon those abounding the most in superstition and error, that we may be in a position to determine their real value, and guard against being deceived.