"But since it is not easy to review all the connections together, and moreover, since our task is not so much to retain them in our memory as to distinguish them with, as it were, the sharp edge of our mind, we must seek a means of developing our intelligence in such a way that we can discern these connections immediately whenever the need arises"
— Descartes, René (1596-1650)
Author
Place of Publication
Amsterdam
Publisher
P. and J. Blaeu
Date
w. 1628, published in 1684, 1701
Metaphor
"But since it is not easy to review all the connections together, and moreover, since our task is not so much to retain them in our memory as to distinguish them with, as it were, the sharp edge of our mind, we must seek a means of developing our intelligence in such a way that we can discern these connections immediately whenever the need arises"
Metaphor in Context
Secondly, we should note that there are very few pure and simple natures which we can intuit straight off and per se (independently of any others) either in our sensory experience or by means of a light innate within us. We should, as I said, attend carefully to the simple natures which can be intuited in this way, for these are the ones which in each series we term simple in the highest degree. As for all the other natures, we can apprehend them only by deducing them from those which are simple in the highest degree, either immediately and directly, or by means of two or three or more separate inferences. In the latter case we should also note the number of these inferences so that we may know whether the separation between the conclusion and the primary and supremely simple proposition is by way of a greater or fewer number of steps. And the chain of inferences - which gives rise to those series of objects of investigation to which every problem must be reduced - is such throughout that the problem can be investigated by a reliable method. But since it is not easy to review all the connections together, and moreover, since our task is not so much to retain them in our memory as to distinguish them with, as it were, the sharp edge of our mind, we must seek a means of developing our intelligence in such a way that we can discern these connections immediately whenever the need arises. In my experience there is no better way of doing this than by accustoming ourselves to reflecting with some discernment on the minute details of the things we have already perceived.
(Rule 6, p. 22)
(Rule 6, p. 22)
Categories
Provenance
Past Masters
Citation
Reading Descartes, René. The Philosophical Writings of Descartes, trans. John Cottingham, Robert Stoothof, and Dugald Murdoch (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1985).
See Opuscula posthuma, physica et mathematica (Amsterdam: P. and J. Blaeu, 1701).
Not published in Descartes' lifetime. Dutch translation in 1684; published in Latin in 1701.
See Opuscula posthuma, physica et mathematica (Amsterdam: P. and J. Blaeu, 1701).
Not published in Descartes' lifetime. Dutch translation in 1684; published in Latin in 1701.
Date of Entry
10/01/2003
