Descartes Rules for the Direction of the Mind Pdf

We therefore do not condemn the method of philosophizing that others have already discovered, and these weapons of schoolchildren, the probable syllogisms, which are so well adapted to the polemic. In fact, they practice the minds of young people and act as an incentive by creating an imitation among them; And it is much better for their minds to be shaped by opinions of this kind, though they seem uncertain, than objects of controversy among scholars, than to be left entirely to themselves. For in this way they can fall into an abyss for lack of leadership, but as long as they follow in the footsteps of their masters, even if they can sometimes deviate from the truth, they will surely find a way that is certain, at least in this regard, that it has been approved by more cautious people. We ourselves are happy to have experienced this school education in previous years; But now that we are freed from this oath of allegiance that bound us to our old masters, and since they have become our more mature years, we are no longer subject to ferrules, if we seriously want to establish these rules that will help us climb the heights of human knowledge, we must certainly admit that the maxim among the main members of our catalog, which prevents us from abusing our hobbies as much as possible. do this neglect all simple quests and take their time only with difficult questions; Because although they certainly make all kinds of subtle assumptions and elaborate the most plausible arguments with a lot of ingenuity, they often realize too late that after all their work, they have only increased the multitude of their doubts without acquiring any knowledge. Whenever people notice some similarity between two things, they are used to attributing to each, even in the sense that the two differ in what they found to be true for the other. Thus, they mistakenly compare the sciences, which consist entirely of the cognitive exercise of the mind, with the arts, which depend on an exercise and disposition of the body. They see that not all the arts can be acquired by one and the same man, but that the one who is limited to one is most likely to become the best executor, because it is not so easy for the same hand to adapt both to the farm and to the playing of the harp or to the execution of several tasks such as for one. Originally, the rules were to consist of three parts, each comprising twelve rules. The second sentence of the twelve rules is incomplete and ends at rule twenty-one, and only the titles of rules nineteen to twenty-one are indicated. The final set of twelve rules is completely absent; it seems that Descartes left this project unfinished.

This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was lawfully published in the United States (or at United Nations Headquarters in New York, subject to Article 7 of the United States Headquarters Agreement) prior to 1964 and the copyright has not been renewed. But from these considerations now emerges a conclusion, namely not that arithmetic and geometry are the only sciences that need to be studied, but only that in our search for the direct path to truth we should not deal with a goal on which we cannot achieve a certainty that corresponds to that of the demonstrations of arithmetic and geometry. But if we adhere closely to this rule, we will find few legitimate objects of study. Because in science, there is hardly a question that talented men have not discussed. But whenever two men make opposing decisions in the same matter, at least one of them must be wrong, and apparently there is not even one who knows; for if the argument of the second were reasonable and clear, he would be able to present it to the other in order to convince his understanding as well. Therefore, in such a case, we do not seem to be able to acquire a perfect knowledge of the likely opinion, because it would be frowned upon to hope for more than others have accomplished. So, if we calculate correctly, already discovered sciences, arithmetic and geometry remain alone, to which compliance with this rule reduces us. This work may still be protected by copyright in jurisdictions that do not apply the short-term rule to U.S. works.

Descartes` Rules for the Direction of the Mind (Regulae ad Directionem Ingenii) were written in Latin, probably in 1628 or a few years earlier, but were not published during the author`s lifetime. A Dutch translation of the work appeared in Holland in 1684, and the first Latin edition was published in Amsterdam in 1701 by P. and J. Blaeu. Translated by Elizabeth Anscombe and Peter Thomas Geach in 1954 for their work Descartes: Philosophical Writings, and copyright not renewed. But let us now continue to explain in more detail our reason for saying, as we did some time ago, that of all the sciences known so far, arithmetic and geometry alone are free from any flaws or uncertainty. So we need to realize that there are two ways to know the facts, namely through experience and through derivation. We must continue to observe that while our conclusions drawn from experience are often misleading, the pure deduction or illation of one thing from another, although it may be ignored if it is not understood, cannot be false if it is achieved by rational understanding to the lesser degree. And it seems to me that the operation benefits little from these restrictive links by which dialectics claims to control human reason, even if I do not deny that this discipline can be useful for other purposes.