Cartesian Discussions...

Let's just say that if Henry Clay wasn't my favorite historical person, it could be Rene Descartes at a close second. Why you ask (and look at me like I'm crazy)? Well, I do enjoy calculus, and Descartes kind of helped with that whole scene quite a bit. I also enjoyed Dr. Florca's lecture on Descartes. The man doesn't lie... he promised 120 slides of pure fascination, and I must admit, my ADD barely kicked in during the hour long talk. (The slide with his head on his dog.... downright creepy though!)

But onto a real post about what I thought of The Discourse. First, I would like to point out that I think Dr. Florca made an excellent point in the fact that the title doesn't say it defines the method, it just kind of explains the rules, the points and such. I liked the first part the best so far. I like how Descartes explained why he chose philosophy, though he says he didn't to describe his method. He even discredits mathematics and yet writes books later on that topic. Whatever, anyone crazy enough to move when they found out his address probably didn't think straight all of the time. ( I guess all geniuses are a bit weird). Descartes says that his Method has four rules to it. They all seem so impossible to follow. And how would you know if broke the rules? Wouldn't it just be your own biased judgement telling you if you did indeed break those rules? I'm this will come up in class at some point... but overall, I found the rules and goals of his method kind of hard to comprehend as realistic....