Discours de la methode pour bien conduire sa raison, & chercher la verité dans les sciences. Plus La dioptriqve. Les meteores. Et La geometrie. Qui sont des essais de cete methode. (Descartes – Discourse on the Method)
Additional link
Document
A Leyde, De li̓mprimerie de I. Maire
1637
Library of Congress, Rare Book and Special Collections Division
Lessing J. Rosenwald Collection, Library of Congress; Rare Book Selections
12/06/2025
French transcription (original orthography)
Si ce discours semble trop long pour estre tout leu en une fois, on le pourra distinguer en six parties. Et en la premiere on trouuera diuerses considerations touchant les sciences. En la seconde, les principales regles de la Methode que l’Auteur a cherchée. En la 3, quelques vnes de celles de la Morale qu’il a tirée de cete Methode. En la 4, les raisons par lesquelles il prouve l’existence de Dieu, & de l’ame humaine, qui sont les fondemens de sa Metaphysique. En la 5, l’ordre des questions de Physique qu’il a cherchées, & particulierement l’explication du mouuement du cœur, & de quelques autres difficultez qui appartiennent a la Medecine, puis aussi la difference qui est entre nostre ame & celle des bestes. Et en la derniere, quelles choses il croit estre requises pour aller plus auant en la recherche de la Nature qu’il n’a esté, & quelles raisons l’ont fait escrire.
English Translation
If this discourse seems too long to be read all at once, it may be divided into six parts. In the first, one will find various considerations concerning the sciences. In the second, the principal rules of the Method that the Author has sought. In the third, some of the moral rules that he has derived from this Method. In the fourth, the reasons by which he proves the existence of God and of the human soul, which are the foundations of his Metaphysics. In the fifth, the order of questions in Physics that he has investigated, and particularly the explanation of the movement of the heart, and of some other difficulties which pertain to Medicine, as well as the difference between our soul and that of beasts. And in the last, the things he believes are required to go further in the investigation of Nature than he has done, and the reasons that led him to write.
