Making Room for the Individual in Descartes’ Discourse on the Method

Descartes' Discourse on the Method (1637) is one of the founding texts of modern Western philosophy, articulating a process of knowledge gathering that begins with the individual's exercise of reason or “good sense.” Facing down the threat posed by skepticism, Descartes' narrator finds that the first luminous truth he can uncover within himself is that of his own existence. Passing from that to the recognition of the existence of a God who will guarantee the veracity of clear and distinct ideas, the narrator proceeds to lay the foundations of an approach to the natural sciences that will permit him to make discoveries endowed with the certainty characteristic of the truths of geometry. The vision that emerges from this procedure emphasizes a sharp contrast between mind and matter (including one's own body).