"Even though problems such as these can often be solved without a method and can sometimes perhaps be solved more quickly through good luck than through method, nevertheless they might dim the light of the mind and make it become so habituated to childish and futile pursuits that thereafter it would always stick to the surface of things and would be unable to penetrate more deeply."
— Descartes, René (1596-1650)
Author
Place of Publication
Amsterdam
Publisher
P. and J. Blaeu
Date
w. 1628, published in 1684, 1701
Metaphor
"Even though problems such as these can often be solved without a method and can sometimes perhaps be solved more quickly through good luck than through method, nevertheless they might dim the light of the mind and make it become so habituated to childish and futile pursuits that thereafter it would always stick to the surface of things and would be unable to penetrate more deeply."
Metaphor in Context
It was for this reason that we insisted that our inquiries must proceed methodically. In these somewhat trivial subjects the method usually consists simply in constantly following an order, whether it is actually present in the matter in question or is ingeniously read into it. For example, say we want to read something written in an unfamiliar cypher which lacks any apparent order: what we shall do is to invent an order, so as to test every conjecture we can make about individual letters, words, or sentences, and to arrange the characters in such a way that by an enumeration we may discover what can be deduced from them. Above all, we must guard against wasting our time by making random and unmethodical guesses about similarities. Even though problems such as these can often be solved without a method and can sometimes perhaps be solved more quickly through good luck than through method, nevertheless they might dim the light of the mind and make it become so habituated to childish and futile pursuits that thereafter it would always stick to the surface of things and would be unable to penetrate more deeply. But for all that we must not fall into the error of those who occupy their minds exclusively with serious and lofty issues, only to find that after much toil they gain, not the profound science they desired, but mere confusion. We must therefore practise these easier tasks first, and above all methodically, so that by following accessible and familiar paths we may grow accustomed, just as if we were playing a game, to penetrating always to the deeper truth of things. In this way we shall gradually find - much sooner than we might expect - that it is just as easy to deduce, on the basis of evident principles, many propositions which appear very difficult and complicated.
(Rule 10, p. 35)
(Rule 10, p. 35)
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
Date of Review
01/26/2012
