Hello, I’m Dr. Anadale from Mount St. Mary’s University in Emmitsburg, Maryland.
Today’s text is the latter two-thirds of Descartes’ Discourse on Method, Part 1.
On the first two pages Descartes has introduced his new approach, zeroing in on the methods
people use to govern their minds.
He has also emphasized that he has no special genius and is an ordinary man, offering his
thoughts without claiming any special authority for them.
In the remainder of Part 1 Descartes reviews his education and the value of the specific
subjects he has studied.
He presents his personal judgments with wit and style, inviting us to agree with him without
waiting for an argument on each particular point.
Here Descartes’ presenting himself as an everyman helps his project: if he could not
find clear and steady knowledge of everything that is useful for life in his education,
one of the best educations available in Europe at the time, then it’s unlikely the reader
would benefit from this education either.
Throughout these pages note the assumptions that Descartes is subtly pushing on his readers:
assumptions about the intellect, about knowledge, and certainty.
We will discuss these later on.
Descartes first sums up the value of each subject in a few words and then gives each
a longer treatment and an evaluation of his attitude towards further study in that field.
About languages, he says they are necessary for understanding classical texts, but he
judges that he already knows Latin and Greek well enough to be able to read these ancient texts.
He doesn't need to study languages any further.
Fables, he says, will help to awaken the mind but too much study of fables can lead to you
getting lost in a fantasy land, imagining impossibilities.
So he doesn’t see much profit in the further study of fables.
Histories, he said, can uplift the mind and when studied properly can help to form your
judgment in living a good life, but he says, like travel, too much study of history can
make you out of place in your own home, and historians can also mislead you by idealizing
the past, leaving out some of the baser elements of it.
So if you study history with the idea of modeling your life on what you read, you’re likely
to go wrong.
Eloquence and poetry, Descartes says, he admires tremendously; they have great power and beauty.
But he regards these as being gifts, not the fruit of study.
So there’s not likely to be any profit from studying poetry and eloquence and rhetoric
in any further detail.
Mathematics, says Descartes, exists to satisfy our curiosity and also is able to facilitate
the labor-saving arts, what we today refer to as technology and engineering.
Descartes notes that he admired their certainty and the evidence of their reasonings, but
did not yet notice their true usefulness.
We’ll keep that in mind for later on, when we read more of Descartes.
Writings on morals, says Descartes, contain lessons and exportations to virtue, but he
ultimately regards these as built upon sand.
He says they don’t provide enough practical instruction on how to live our life.
Instead they tend to praise virtue in eloquent and sometimes elaborate terms, but they don’t
give us the kind of practical know-how that we require.
Theology, Descartes says, teaches us how to go to heaven.
He says: “I revere our theology,” but, he says, striking his note of false humility
again, I wouldn’t dare to subject theology to my own humble feeble reasonings.
I will leave that to the experts.
I could never understand anything so profound as theological truth.
I’ll just be content to follow what the Church teaches.
About philosophy, Descartes says: I noticed that it gave people a means of speaking plausibly
about all things and a way of being admired by the less learned.
(A twist of the knife from Descartes there.)
But he also notes that the best minds in philosophy disagree about virtually every question.
He says he will not presume to get involved in philosophy on his own, and since philosophers
disagree about many subjects and at most one of them can be correct, he’ll just play
it safe in regard all philosophical views as being equally false.
About the other sciences, including law and medicine and practical sciences, Descartes
does note that they bestow honor and riches upon the people who practice them.
But since, he says, they derive their principles from philosophy, they’re not going to be
the source of truth that he ultimately is looking for.
And since he’s not motivated by honor or money, he’s not going to have any motivation
to study law or the other sciences either.
So after considering all the possible subjects of study Descartes says that he decided to
set out on his own, seeking knowledge in the world and in himself.
And he learned much by travelling around Europe.
But after several years of travelling, Descartes says, he made up his mind to study himself
and to examine his own mind to see what he might learn by reflection.
And that brings us to the end of Part 1 of the Discourse on Method.
We’ll look at Part 2 next. Thanks for watching today; goodbye.