René Descartes
Dare to begin thinking again.
A mathematician, physicist and philosopher, Descartes seeks knowledge that habit and authority alone cannot guarantee. His methodical doubt reaches an initial certainty, then undertakes a demanding reconstruction of knowledge.
What can I hold to be true, and for what reasons?
Biography
Born in Touraine and educated at the Jesuit college of La Flèche, Descartes does not initially separate philosophy from science. He travels, studies mathematics and seeks a method connecting his investigations. Living for many years in the Dutch Republic, he works at a distance from institutions while maintaining an extensive European correspondence.
02 /Philosophy
Descartes provisionally suspends whatever can be doubted in order to seek a secure foundation. He recommends neither permanent suspicion nor inaction. Doubt is a radical procedure of inquiry, distinct from the practical decisions that life requires us to make without absolute certainty.
03 /Reading guides
Original introductions to enter the works, discover their central questions and take the reflection further.
04 /Bibliography
Works, testimonies and further readings are distinguished. Dates refer to composition or first publication, as specified in each entry.
A first reading.
Learning to guide your reason
Begin with Parts II and III of the Discourse: how to inquire methodically without waiting to know everything before living.
Discourse on the MethodMoving through doubt
Follow the first two Meditations, then place the cogito within the movement of the complete six-meditation work.
Meditations on First Philosophy, Objections and RepliesUnderstanding what moves us
Read the passions as a question of embodied life, distinguishing the text’s philosophical interest from its historical physiology.
The Passions of the Soul