Homme de bien, Latin homo bonus, honest man

40. En se renonçant is archaic = M.F. en faisant abnégation de soi-

DESCARTES (1596-1650

Life and Works. — René Descartes was born in 1596 at la Haye, now known as la Haye-Descartes (Indre et Loire). He commencée! his éducation at a Jesuit school and completed it at Paris. Having independent means, he then spent some time in travelling in the provinces or abroad, and in serving as a soldier in the wars that desolated the Continent. The winter of 1619 found him at Neuberg, where, in a warm stove-heated room (' dans un poêle,' note 4, p. xlvii), he passed some hours in quiet méditation, and ' discovered the foundations of a marvellous science.' His discovery was later to be embodied in the famous Discours de la Méthode pour bien conduire sa raison et rechercher la vérité dans les sciences. But it was not till ten years later, when he was thirty-three years of âge, that Descartes, quitting the study of the great book of life, went to Holland, where, in retreats only known to a few discreet friends, he settled down in undisturbed tranquillity, to think out for himself a System of philosophy. In 1637 he published the Discours, which was followed by the Méditations sur la Philosophie première and the Principes de la Philosophie^ both written in Latin, and of which he revised the French translations. Thèse works brought him famé, and also violent attacks and

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abuse, in spite of ail his efforts to avoid offending the préjudices of his time, which had already proved too strong for Galileo. Warned by the example of the latter, Descartes went so far as to withhold the publication of one of his books, in order not to corne into conflict with authority (see Introduction). In Holland, now in one town, now in another, twenty years of Descartes' life were passed in philosophie méditation and scientific research. Unfortunately, he was persuaded by Queen Christina of Sweden to visit her Court, and the philosophie enthusiasm of this lady caused his death (1650). She elected to hâve her lessons at five o'clock in the morning, and Descartes having to go out into the cold morning air of the North, in order to reach the palace, caught an inflammation of the lungs, which proved fatal.

The Discours de la Méthode contains in a popular and autobiographical setting the main points of Descartes' philosophy. In the first part he exposes the process of reasoning by which he arrived at his discovery : ' La puissance de bien juger et distinguer le vrai d'avec le faux, qui seule nous rend homme et nous distingue des bêtes, est naturellement égale en tous les hommes et tout entière en un chacun. La diversité de nos opinions ne vient pas de ce que les uns sont plus raissonables que les autres, mais seulement de ce que nous conduisons nos pensées par diverses voies.' What is essential, therefore, is the method of reasoning, and his object is to show what method he discovered for his own use. In the second part (which appears as I. in this volume) he gives the four precepts of his method — the first being to accept nothing as true of which the truth did not appear to him obvious. But while subjecting everything doubtful to the test of reason, it is necessary to hâve provisional rules of conduct.

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Thèse he gives in the next part (No. II. of the text). In the fourth part he proceeds to expose his theory of ' doute méthodique»1 according to which, as already stated, it frai necessary to reject ail that was open to doubt. But whatever we may doubt, we cannot doubt that we are doubting, and hence that we are thinking. In so far as we think, we are : hence the famous je pense, donc je suis. But if I am, what am I ? he asks, and proceeds to answer the question by the distinction between soûl and body, emphasizing the priority of the former, and proclaiming the dependence of both on the existence of God.

In the fifth part of the Discours the gênerai laws of matter and motion are exposed, and the sixth concludes with the reasons that led Descartes to write this work in French instead of Latin : ' Et si j'écris en français qui est la langue de mon pays, plutôt qu'en latin, qui est celle de mes précepteurs, c'est à cause que j'espère que ceux qui ne se servent que de leur raison naturelle toute pure jugeront mieux de mes opinions que ceux qui ne croient qu'aux livres anciens, et pour ceux qui joignent le bon sens à l'étude, lesquels seuls je souhaite pour mes juges, ils ne seront point, je m'assure, si partiaux pour le latin, qu'ils refusent d'entendre mes raisons pour ce que ( = M. F. parce que) je les explique en langue vulgaire.'

Such are briefly the main points of the Discours. The truths it contains, elaborated by Malebranche and Leibnitz, constitute the basis of modem philosophy.

The style of Descartes is always clear, in spite of the length of some of the sentences. It abounds in picturesque expressions and vivid similes, but occasionally it betrays the effort of composition, and frequently one feels that Descartes, though writing in French, was thinking in Latin.

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NOTES

1. Descartes was serving in the army of the Duke of Bavaria in the Thirty Years' War.