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Its Rene Descartes, "the method" that we studied in art history, from the rennaisance.
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Rene Descartes (The Method)For it isn’t enough to have a good mind; what matters mostis using it well. ·Sheer quality of intellect
doesn’t make thedifference between good and bad·: the greatest souls arecapable of the greatest vices
as well as the greatest virtues.·Nor is nimbleness of intellect the key to making discoveries·:
those who go very slowly but always on the right path can make much greater progress than those who
sprint and go astray.
following the common opinion of the philosophers, whosay that a quality that admits of differences in
degree can’tbe one that marks the difference between one species and another
But I never lost my respect for the curriculum of the college. I knew that •the languages learned there
are necessary if one wants to grasp the works of the ancients; that the charm of •fables awakens the
mind; that the memorable deeds encountered in •histories uplift the mind and—if read with discretion
—help to shape one’s judgment; that reading •good books is like having a conversation with the most
distinguished men of past ages, namely their authors—indeed, a carefully prepared conversation in
which they reveal to us only the best of their thoughts; that •oratory has incomparable powers and
beauties; that •poetry has quite ravishing delicacy and sweetness; that •mathematics contains some
very subtle devices that serve not only to satisfy those who are intrigued by mathematical problems but
also to help with all practical and mechanical endeavours and to lessen men’s labours; that writings on
•morals contain many very useful teachings and exhortations to virtue; that •theology teaches us the
way to heaven; that •philosophy gives us the means of speaking plausibly about any subject and of
being admired by the less learned; that •law, medicine, and other sciences bring honours and riches to
those who study them; and, ?nally, that it is good to have studied •all these subjects—even those full of
superstition and falsehood—in order to know their true value and guard against being deceived
People with the strongest reasoning and the most skill at ordering their thoughts so as to make them
clear and intelligible are always the most persuasive, even if they speak only a provincial dialect and
have never learned rhetoric.
We live in a society where `the monkey mind`` is encouraged (from one thought to another in
succession) making thought organization difficult for most (consider the sociological implication),
therefore place extra-attention on thought organization
the moral writings of the ancient pagans, which I likened to very proud andmagni?cent palaces built
only on sand and mud (·wonderful structures on shaky foundations·). They praise the virtues,
making them appear more admirable than anything else in the world; but they don’t adequately explain
how to tell whensomething is a virtue, and often what they call by this ?nename ‘virtue’ is merely an
instance of callousness, or vanity,or despair—or parricide!
Descartes is very rational minded, earth bound, `man in time`according to Man of Time Theory.
I spent the restof my youth •travelling, •visiting courts and armies, •mixingwith people of different
temperaments and ranks, •gathering various experiences, •testing myself in the situations that
luck put me into, and always •re?ecting on whatever came my way so as to pro?t from it.
I could ?nd much more truth in the •reasonings that people make about matters that concern their
interests than in •a scholar’s closeted reasonings about theoretical matters.
, And in the human sphere: I believe that if Sparta was at one time very ?ourishing, this wasn’t because
each of its laws was good (seeing that many were very strange and even contrary to good morals), but
because they were devised by a single man and hence were all conducive to the same end.
it would be truly unreasonable for an individual to •plan to reform a state by changing it from the foun-
dations up, overturning it in order to rebuild it; or to •plan to reform the content of the sciences or the
established ways of teaching them in the schools; but I thought nevertheless that ·something radical
could be done at the level of personal intellectual hygiene, namely Regarding the opinions which I had
previously held, I couldn’t do better than set out to get rid of them all at one go, so as then to replace
them afterwards with better opinions or even with the same ones after I had straightened them out
using reason’s plumb-line. I ?rmly believed that this would let me conduct my life much better than if I
were to build only on old foundations and rely only on principles that I had accepted in my youth
without
ever examining whether they were true.
those meddle-some and restless characters who, without being called by birth or by fortune to the
management of •public affairs, are yet forever thinking up some new reform.
The world is mostly made up of two types of minds for whom it is quite unsuitable (his *method*).
(1)There are those who, believing themselves cleverer than they are, can’t help •rushing to judgment
and can’t •muster the patience to direct all their thoughts in an orderly manner. So that if they once
took the liberty of doubting the principles they haveaccepted and leaving the common path, they would
never be able to stay on the straighter path that they ought to take, and would remain lost all their lives.
(2)And there are those who are reasonable enough, or modest enough, to think that they can’t
distinguish true from false as well as some other people by whom they can be taught. These should be
content to follow the opinions of those others rather than to seek better opinions themselves.
As for myself, I would undoubtedly have been among the modest followers if I had had only one
teacher, or if I had never known how learned people have always differedfrom one another in their
opinions. ·As things were, I was saved from being a follower by my having no idea of whom to
follow·.
Back in my college days I discovered that nothing can be imagined that is too strange or incredible to
have been said by some philosopher!
My thoughts convinced me that·our convictions come much more from custom and example than from
any certain knowledge; and •yet when it comes to proving truths that are hard to discover, a majority
vote is downright worthless, because one man on his own is much more likely to hit upon such truths
than a whole population is.
I couldn’t choose anyone whose opinions seemed to me preferable to those of all others, and I found
myself pretty much forced to become my own guide.
We all have a tendency to view people or a person as a rôle model, many men. This however is only
partial, and ultimately, not you, therefore, only you can be you. Gret men are a great reference.
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