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  • A Discourse on the Method
  • Desmond M. Clarke
René Descartes: A Discourse on the Method. A new translation by Ian Maclean. Oxford University Press, 2006. lxxv + 84 pp. Pb £6.99.

Descartes published anonymously in 1637 a large book of over five hundred pages with a correspondingly prolix title. It was written in French rather than in Latin to make it accessible to a wider readership, including women. Maclean provides a detailed account of the book's origins in his introduction. Descartes had been working on a number of related projects since about 1625, and had completed a book he called Le Monde when, in 1633, he heard about Galileo's condemnation and decided not to publish. The essays that appeared four years later represented a compromise of sorts; Descartes wanted to appear in print and to avoid church censure. So he avoided disclosure of the fundamental laws on which his natural philosophy depended, since they might reveal his commitment to Copernicanism, and [End Page 366] offered instead samples of how his novel approach to problem-solving in philosophy could be applied successfully in dioptrics, meteorology and geometry. These three essays provided the main body of the book. While they were being printed, the author decided to write a 'Preface' that would outline the method employed in his research. Over the centuries this preface has become detached from the book for which it was written, and it is often read today (as in this edition) as if it were a free-standing book that borrows its title from that of the original volume. Even when thus detached, the Discourse unfortunately cannot conceal the historical complexity of its conception. Descartes was pressed for time and he took a familiar shortcut when writing this prefatory essay. He looked over his unpublished draft manuscripts, some of which preceded his move to the Netherlands in 1628. He had incomplete manuscripts on metaphysics and on method (both written in Latin); he also had an outline of an intellectual autobiography, and some sections of Le Monde concerning human physiology of which he was particularly proud (both written in French). Without taking time to integrate the disparate parts, he wrote a preface in six parts, in which he begins by discussing his early education and his disdain for scholastic philosophy. He added an interim moral guide, a sample of metaphysics (a draft proof of God's existence), and a surprisingly long and out-of-place discussion of blood circulation. Finally, Part Six provides what readers might have expected — an explanation of the method by which he claimed to have solved the problems discussed in the attached essays. This 'Preface' concerning method has been translated many times, into Latin in 1644, and into English in 1649 as A Discourse of a Method for the well guiding of Reason, and the Discovery of Truth in the Sciences. The challenge for any translator, as Maclean acknowledges, is to make it accessible to a new generation of readers, without anachronism if possible. This objective is achieved admirably in this edition by informed and confident choices in English for key terms such as le bon sens, and the addition of explanatory notes when necessary. [End Page 367]

Desmond M. Clarke
University College Cork
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