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Discourse on the Method

René Descartes · 1637

Descartes's 1637 French treatise where he sets out his method of reasoning and first states 'I think, therefore I am'.

Descartes's own manifesto of his method and the origin of his most famous philosophical statement.

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Title page of the 1637 first edition of Discours de la Methode, in old French printed type. Text reads Discours de la Methode, Pour bien conduire sa raison, & chercher la verite dans les sciences, plus La Dioptrique, Les Meteores, et La Geometrie, with a small woodcut emblem of a figure with a lantern in a laurel wreath, and imprint A Leyde, De l'Imprimerie de Ian Maire, 1637.
René Descartes, Discours de la Méthode, title page, 1637. Leiden.

About this source

What it is

A philosophical and autobiographical treatise written by René Descartes and published in 1637 in Leiden. It presents his four rules of method and tells the story of his own intellectual development, ending with the famous statement 'I think, therefore I am'.

Why it matters

This book is one of the most influential works in modern philosophy. Written in French rather than Latin, it was meant to reach a wider audience than scholars alone, showing Descartes's wish to make reasoning accessible to ordinary readers. It helped found modern approaches to knowledge, doubt and certainty, and laid groundwork for science and mathematics that followed.

Look closer

  • Why might Descartes have chosen to write in French instead of Latin?
  • What does it mean to doubt everything before trying to know anything?
  • How does telling his own life story help Descartes make his philosophical argument?

This book is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Rene Descartes on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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Title page of the 1641 Latin edition of Descartes' Meditationes de prima philosophia, printed in Paris by Michael Soly. Red and black type, with an engraved emblem of a phoenix rising from flames within a circle, and the date M.DC.XLI at the bottom.Book

Primary source

Meditations on First Philosophy

René Descartes · 1641

Title page of the 1637 first edition of Descartes' Discours de la Methode, in French. The text lists it with La Dioptrique, Les Meteores, and La Geometrie as essays of this method, printed at Leyde by Ian Maire. A small engraved vignette of a figure with a tree and landscape appears in the center.Document

Primary source

La Géométrie

René Descartes · 1637

Oil painting of a man with shoulder-length dark wavy hair, a thin mustache, and a white collar over a dark jacket, turning his head toward the viewer against a brown background, with one hand visible at the lower right.Painting

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Portrait of René Descartes

Frans Hals · 1649

Title page of a book reading 'Renati Des-Cartes Principia Philosophiae', with a Latin subtitle, an engraving of a winged figure and a robed figure beside a armillary sphere with banner 'Indefessus Agendo', an oval library stamp, and imprint 'Amstelodami, Ex Typographia Blaviana, MDCLXXXV'.Book

Primary source

Principles of Philosophy

René Descartes · 1644

Title page of the 1649 French edition of Les Passions de l'Ame by René Descartes. Large serif title 'LES PASSIONS DE L'AME', 'PAR RENE DES CARTES' below, a crowned fleur-de-lis coat of arms in an oval wreath, and a Paris publication imprint at the bottom.Book

Primary source

Passions of the Soul

René Descartes · 1649

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