Editing Discourse on the Method (section)

=== Part I: Various scientific considerations ===

Descartes begins by allowing himself some wit:

{{Blockquote|Good sense is, of all things among men, the most equally distributed; for every one thinks himself so abundantly provided with it, that those even who are the most difficult to satisfy in everything else, do not usually desire a larger measure of this quality than they already possess.}}

[[File:Library Walk 28.JPG|thumb|right|"...the reading of good books is like a conversation with the best men of past centuries–" (''Discourse'' part I, AT p. 5)]]

A similar observation can be found in Hobbes, when he writes about human abilities, specifically wisdom and "their own wit": "But this proveth rather that men are in that point equal, than unequal. For there is not ordinarily a greater sign of the equal distribution of anything than that every man is contented with his share,"<ref>{{cite web |url=http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/phl302/texts/hobbes/leviathan-c.html#CHAPTERXIII |title= Oregon State University|website=oregonstate.edu |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100528165112/http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/phl302/texts/hobbes/leviathan-c.html#CHAPTERXIII |archive-date=May 28, 2010}}</ref> but also in Montaigne, whose formulation indicates that it was a commonplace at the time: "Tis commonly said that the justest portion Nature has given us of her favors is that of sense; for there is no one who is not contented with his share."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/1747#Montaigne_0963-06_212|title=Essays of Montaigne, vol. 6 - Online Library of Liberty|work=libertyfund.org}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/1747#Montaigne_0963-06_213|title=Essays of Montaigne, vol. 6 - Online Library of Liberty|work=libertyfund.org}}</ref> Descartes continues with a warning:<ref>{{cite book|last=Descartes|first=Rene|url=https://archive.org/details/discourseonmeth00desc|title=Discourse on Method and Meditations|publisher=The Liberal Arts Press|others=Laurence J. Lafleur (trans)|year=1960|isbn=978-0-672-60278-8|location=New York|url-access=registration}}</ref>

{{Blockquote|For to be possessed of a vigorous mind is not enough; the prime requisite is rightly to apply it. The greatest minds, as they are capable of the highest excellences, are open likewise to the greatest aberrations; and those who travel very slowly may yet make far greater progress, provided they keep always to the straight road, than those who, while they run, forsake it.|author=|title=|source=}}

Descartes describes his disappointment with his education: "[A]s soon as I had finished the entire course of study…I found myself involved in so many doubts and errors, that I was convinced I had advanced no farther…than the discovery at every turn of my own ignorance." He notes his special delight with mathematics, and contrasts its strong foundations to "the disquisitions of the ancient moralists [which are] towering and magnificent palaces with no better foundation than sand and mud."