22C:096
Computation, Information, and Description
Department of Computer Science
The University of Iowa
Discourse on the Method of Rightly Conducting the Reason, and
Seeking Truth in the Sciences
by René Descartes
AD 1637
from the Project Gutenberg Etext
annotated and organized by Michael J. O'Donnell
Note from the annotator (Michael J. O'Donnell)
The material below is my presentation of
Project Gutenberg's online version
dcart10 of Descartes' Discours (which appears to be
the translation by John Veitch), reorganized for more convenient
online use by the class, and annotated to focus attention on the parts
that are relevant to our discussion. Project Gutenberg performs a
great service by providing an online version of Descartes'
Discours in the public domain. Their text is a single HTML
file, which you may take from my local
copy (140,069 bytes) if you want to see the Gutenberg version
exactly. For the class, I have reorganized the material into several
files, made visible some administrative information in case you want
to read about the terms of distribution, and I have added class
notes. Material between the lines
is in the Gutenberg text, but I am highlighting it because it is
particularly relevant. Material between the lines
is my annotation.
Descriptive head matter
from Project Gutenberg
The Project Gutenberg Etext of A Discourse on Method
DISCOURSE ON THE METHOD OF RIGHTLY CONDUCTING THE REASON,
AND SEEKING TRUTH IN THE SCIENCES
by René Descartes
PREFATORY NOTE BY THE AUTHOR
If this Discourse appear too long to be read at once, it may be divided
into six Parts: and, in the first, will be found various considerations
touching the Sciences; in the second, the principal rules of the Method
which the Author has discovered, in the third, certain of the rules of
Morals which he has deduced from this Method; in the fourth, the
reasonings by which he establishes the existence of God and of the Human
Soul, which are the foundations of his Metaphysic; in the fifth, the order
of the Physical questions which he has investigated, and, in particular,
the explication of the motion of the heart and of some other difficulties
pertaining to Medicine, as also the difference between the soul of man and
that of the brutes; and, in the last, what the Author believes to be
required in order to greater advancement in the investigation of Nature
than has yet been made, with the reasons that have induced him to write.
Last modified 28 February 2001.