Discourse and Essays

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Translator's preface Descartes' first published writings, the Discourse and Essays appeared anonymously at Leiden in June 1637, under the full title Discourse on the Method of rightly conducting one's reason and seeking the truth in the sciences, and in addition the Optics, the Meteorology and the Geometry, which are essays in this Method (Discours de la Méthode pour hien conduire sa raison, et chercher la vérité dans les sciences. Plus la Dioptrique, les Météores et la Géométrie qui sont des essais de cette Méthode). This title is an abbreviated form of the more elaborate title that Descartes proposed in a letter to Mersenne of March 1636, where he speaks of ‘four treatises, all in French, with the general title: The Plan of a universal Science which is capable of raising our nature to its highest degree of perfection. In addition, the Optics, the Meteorology and the Geometry, in which the Author, in order to give proof of his universal Science, explains the most abstruse Topics he could choose, and does so in such a way that even persons who have never studied can understand them.’ When Mersenne raised questions about the title of the published work, Descartes replied (in a letter of February 1637): I have not put Treatise on the Method but Discourse on the Method, which amounts to the same as Preface or Note concerning the Method, in order to show that I do not intend to teach the method but only to speak about it. […]

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