Editing Discourse on the Method (section)

{{Short description|1637 treatise by Descartes}}

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| name              = Discourse on the Method
| image             = Descartes Discours de la Methode.jpg
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| caption           = Discourse on the Method
| author            = [[René Descartes]]
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| title_orig        = Discours de la Méthode Pour bien conduire sa raison, et chercher la vérité dans les sciences
| orig_lang_code    = fr
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| language          = [[French language|French]]
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| subject           = [[Philosophy]] and [[autobiography]] 
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| pub_date          = 1637
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| native_wikisource = Discours de la méthode
| wikisource        = Discourse on the Method
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{{Descartes}}
'''''Discourse on the Method of Rightly Conducting One's Reason and of Seeking Truth in the Sciences''''' ({{langx|fr|Discours de la Méthode pour bien conduire sa raison, et chercher la vérité dans les sciences}}) is a [[philosophy|philosophical]] and [[autobiographical]] [[treatise]] published by [[René Descartes]] in 1637. It is best known as the source of the famous [[quotation]] ''"Je pense, donc je suis"'' ("[[I think, therefore I am]]", or "I am thinking, therefore I exist"),<ref>Garber, Daniel. [1998] 2003. "[http://rep.tandf.test.semantico.net/article/DA026SECT5 The Cogito Argument | Descartes, René] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210915062838/http://rep.tandf.test.semantico.net/article/DA026SECT5 |date=2021-09-15 }}." In ''[[Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy]]'', edited by E. Craig. London: [[Routledge]]. Retrieved 2017-11-12.</ref> which occurs in Part IV of the work. A similar argument, without this precise wording, is found in ''[[Meditations on First Philosophy]]'' (1641), and a Latin version of the same statement ''[[Cogito, ergo sum]]'' is found in ''[[Principles of Philosophy]]'' (1644).

''Discourse on the Method'' is one of the most influential works in the history of modern philosophy, and important to the development of natural sciences.<ref>Davis, Philip J., and Reuben Hersh. 1986. ''Descartes' Dream: The World According to Mathematics''. Cambridge, MA: [[Harcourt (publisher)|Harcourt Brace Jovanovich]].</ref> In this work, Descartes tackles the problem of [[skepticism]], which had previously been studied by other philosophers. While addressing some of his predecessors and contemporaries, Descartes modified their approach to account for a truth he found to be [[incontrovertible evidence|incontrovertible]]; he started his line of reasoning by doubting everything, so as to assess the world from a fresh perspective, clear of any preconceived notions.

The book was originally published in [[Leiden]], in the Netherlands. Later, it was translated into Latin and published in 1656 in [[Amsterdam]]. The book was intended as an introduction to three works: ''[[Dioptrique]]'', ''{{ill|Météores|fr|Les Météores (Descartes)}}'', and ''[[La Géométrie|Géométrie]]''. ''Géométrie'' contains Descartes's initial concepts that later developed into the [[Cartesian coordinate system]]. The text was written and published in French so as to reach a wider audience than Latin, the language in which most philosophical and scientific texts were written and published at that time, would have allowed.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Burns |first=William E. |title=The scientific revolution: an encyclopedia |date=2001 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |isbn=978-0-87436-875-8 |location=Santa Barbara, Calif.}}</ref> Most of Descartes' other works were written in Latin.

Together with ''Meditations on First Philosophy'', ''Principles of Philosophy'' and ''[[Rules for the Direction of the Mind]]'', it forms the base of the [[epistemology]] known as [[Cartesianism]].