Discourse on the Method
Published anonymously in French as a preface to three scientific essays, the work presents a personal itinerary whose results invite examination.
Explore this workVisit the source(new tab)Rationalism · 1596–1650
René Descartes
Dare to begin thinking again.
France · Dutch Republic · Sweden
Bibliography
Return to the texts.
Works, testimonies and further readings are distinguished. Dates refer to composition or first publication, as specified in each entry.
Bibliographic scope
Catalogue of the principal independent works and posthumous collections. The six sets of objections of 1641 and the seventh of 1642 belong to the Meditations dossier and have several authors. Fragments and the entire Adam–Tannery correspondence are not yet individually indexed. A posthumous publication date does not necessarily date composition.
Explore letters and fragmentsMeditations on First Philosophy, Objections and Replies
Objections by several readers accompanied the Latin edition from 1641; Descartes reviewed the French translation published in 1647.
Explore this workVisit the source(new tab)The Passions of the Soul
His last major lifetime publication develops Elisabeth’s questions about mind–body union and the conduct of life.
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Written before the Discourse, the rules were not published in Latin until 1701; only twenty-one survive.
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Galileo’s condemnation led him to withhold the manuscript; publication occurred after his death.
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Conceived alongside The World, it appeared in Latin translation in 1662 and in French in 1664.
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The first essay accompanying the Discourse presents scientific results independently of a complete exposition of metaphysics.
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The second essay of 1637 uses “meteors” broadly for phenomena of the air, not merely shooting stars.
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The third essay of 1637 requires mathematical preparation and goes beyond the Discourse’s narrative presentation of method.
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The Latin edition of 1644 was followed by a French translation in 1647 with an important prefatory letter.
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Written for Isaac Beeckman in 1618, this first treatise was printed only after its author’s death.
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Its date of composition remains disputed; a Latin version appeared in 1701 among posthumous texts.
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Clerselier published three volumes in 1657–1667; Adam and Tannery later reorganized the corpus with additional documents.
Explore this workVisit the source(new tab)Letter to Voetius
This long public text addresses theologian Gisbertus Voetius; it is not simply a private letter detached from context.
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The text marks a break with a former ally whose claims might be attributed to Cartesianism generally.
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Published after Descartes’ death with material on Man, it must be distinguished from the treatise written in the 1630s.
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The conversation of 16 April 1648 survives as a report rather than a treatise revised by Descartes for publication.
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Transmission depends on copies, extracts and testimony; some originals are lost. These editorial groups do not form a finished book.
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