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Written in French in 1637.
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‘Of methods (Introduction to Methods) for the right guidance of reason and the search for truth in learning.’ Plus its attempts at refractive optics, meteorology, and geometry.”
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The philosophical considerations will be summarized later in “consideration”, but this book tells the story of how the ideas came to be.
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It is divided into six parts
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Part 2
- It begins, “At that time I was in Germany.”
- Four Rules
- I don’t accept anything as true except what I obviously accept as true.
- Divide difficult questions into small parts
- Start with the simplest problem and move on to the most complex one step at a time
- Review the whole thing and be sure you haven’t missed anything.
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Part 3
- Three maxims
- Follow the laws and customs of the country
- No matter how dubious the opinion, once you make up your mind, follow it consistently.
- When you are lost in the woods, you can’t go if you stay put, or if you go this way and that way. Once you have decided on a direction, keep going in accordance with that decision. Do not change direction without a good reason.
- Overcome yourself rather than fate. Change your own desires rather than the world order.
- Only our ideas are within our power.
- And then we’re off on our journey.
- Three maxims
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Part 4
- A story about discarding doubtful things in order to consider whether there is such a thing as “truth.
- Sense is doubtful.
- The argument is dubious.
- Let’s assume that anything indistinguishable from a dream is a fallacy.
- Even if you are that skeptical, you can’t deny that there is a “thinking entity”.
- I think, therefore I am (I think, therefore I am)
- If I just stop thinking about it, any reason to believe I ever existed will cease.”
- The concept of “soul” as the subject of this thinking, and the concept of “God” as the basis of that reasoning.
- Trying to use the senses to understand this concept is like trying to use the eyes to hear a sound
- Human beings are not perfect because they have doubts, but they think of something more perfect, and this must have been learned from something more perfect, which creates a more perfect concept of existence than the “human soul” by the logic of saying
- A story about discarding doubtful things in order to consider whether there is such a thing as “truth.
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Part 6
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I wrote about these things three years ago, when one opinion of natural science by Galileo was repudiated by a religious tribunal.” I don’t think there was any particularly damaging content,” he begins to the effect that
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