Audiobook · read by volunteers
Discourse on the Method of Rightly Conducting One’s Reason and of Seeking Truth
René Descartes (1596–1650)
Read by Stefan Schmelz, Patrick, Rainer, Gesine, deadwhitemales, Richard Grove · 6 chapters · 2 h 29
About the book
In 1637 a French philosopher decided to begin again from scratch. René Descartes had studied widely and found that much of what he had learned was uncertain. So he set out to doubt everything that could possibly be doubted, and to see what, if anything, remained standing. What he found, “I think, therefore I am,” became one of the most famous sentences in philosophy. The Discourse on Method tells the story of this search in a personal, almost autobiographical voice, and then lays out the rules he followed. Short, clear and written in everyday language rather than in Latin, it launched a way of thinking that helped shape modern science. This recording lasts under two and a half hours and is a gripping introduction to philosophy.
Introduction
René Descartes lived from 1596 to 1650. A French philosopher, mathematician and scientist, he published the Discourse on the Method of Rightly Conducting One’s Reason and of Seeking Truth in 1637. The work is best known as the source of the famous sentence “I think, therefore I am”, which appears in the French original as je pense, donc je suis. The method it describes helped lay a foundation for modern natural science.
Descartes drew on the sceptical tradition of the ancients, but he turned doubt into a method, searching for a truth that could not be doubted. He began his line of reasoning by doubting everything he could, and he reached a first certainty in the fact of his own thinking. From there he builds up a view of knowledge, of God and of the physical world, always guided by a small number of simple rules for the conduct of reason.
The book is unusually readable for a work of philosophy. Descartes writes in the first person, tells how he came to his conclusions and explains why he wrote in French rather than Latin: he wanted to reach readers who judged by their own natural reason. This recording is divided into six chapters, called parts in the original, and runs for about two and a half hours.
LibriVox volunteers recorded it for anyone who wishes to listen. Whether you are a student meeting Descartes for the first time or a reader returning to a classic, it offers a clear, concentrated and surprisingly personal account of how a mind sets about finding the truth.
Public domain
René Descartes died in 1650: the work is in the public domain in Switzerland, more than 70 years after the author’s death.
The LibriVox volunteers dedicated this recording to the public domain.
Sources : LibriVox page · Files at the Internet Archive · Original text