Discourse on the Method

Descartes first recounts his education, the books he set aside and the travels that showed him how varied opinion is. He then sets out four rules for conducting his thought, and a provisional morality for living while he doubts. Methodical doubt leads him to the one certainty that withstands it, I think therefore I am, and from there he rebuilds. The work explores knowledge, the place of self-evidence and a science founded on reason rather than authority. He wrote it in French, as a personal narrative, to be read outside the schools.