Part I
Descartes describes his education, his doubts about traditional learning, and his decision to seek truth through reason and experience.
5 argumentative units
- 01Descartes' education and initial hopes
Descartes recounts his childhood education and his early hope that letters and learning would give him clear and certain knowledge of all useful things.
- 02Initial confidence shattered at end of schooling
Upon finishing his course of study, Descartes finds himself surrounded by doubts and errors, convinced he has advanced no farther than discovering his own ignorance.
- 03Doubts about each discipline
Descartes surveys each discipline — languages, history, mathematics, philosophy, theology — and identifies weaknesses or limits in each that prevent certain knowledge.
- 04Mathematics as the one discipline offering certainty
Among all the disciplines, Descartes was especially delighted with mathematics for the certitude and evidence of its reasonings, though he had not yet grasped its true use.
- 05Decision to abandon books and seek truth in the world
Descartes resolves to abandon formal study, travel, and seek truth through experience and personal reflection, eventually turning inward to study himself.