Descartes's Method: The Formation of the Subject of Science

Descartes's Method develops an ontological interpretation of Descartes's method as a dynamic and, within limits, differentiable problem-solving cognitive disposition or habitus, which can be actualized or applied to different problems in various ways, depending on the nature of the problem. Parts I-II develop the foundations of an habitual interpretation of Descartes's method, while Parts III-V demonstrate the fruits of such an interpretation in metaphysics, natural philosophy, and mathematics. The first book to draw on the recently discovered Cambridge manuscript of Descartes's Rules for the Direction of the Mind, Descartes's Method concretely demonstrates the efficacy of Descartes's method in the sciences and the underlying unity of Descartes's method from Rules for the Direction of the Mind to Principles of Philosophy (1644).

Table of Contents:
Preface Abbreviations Introduction Descartes's Method: Universality without Uniformity Part I The Habitual Unity of Science: Aquinas to Descartes 1: The Habitual Unity of Individual Sciences: Aquinas to Suárez 2: The Habitual Unity of Science: Descartes Part II The Operations and Culture of the Method 3: The Operations of the Method: Intuition, Deduction, and Enumeration 4: The Culture of the Method: The Methodological Function of Mathesis universalis Part III The First Problem of the Method: The "Noblest Example" 5: Defining the Problem of the Limits of Knowledge in Rules 6: Descartes's Theory of the Faculties in Rules 7: Descartes's Theory of Simple Natures in Rules 8: The Origins of Cartesian Dualism in Rule 12 Part IV Applications: Perfectly and Imperfectly Understood Problems 9: Perfectly Understood Problems: Method and Mathematics in Rules 13-21 10: Imperfectly Understood Problems: Descartes's Deduction of the Law of Refraction and the Shape of the Anaclastic Lens in Rule 8 Part V Beyond Rules 11: Descartes's Method after Rules Conclusion Appendix Bibliography Index

About the Author :
Tarek Dika is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Toronto. In 2016-2021, he was an Assistant Professor in the Program of Liberal Studies and a Faculty Member in the Program in History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Notre Dame, where he was also a Fellow in the Medieval Institute and a Concurrent Assistant Professor in the Department of Philosophy. In 2013-2016, he was a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Michigan Society of Fellows. Dika currently serves on the Comité de Lecture of Revue de Métaphysique et de Morale.

Review :
No question in Descartes's thought is more difficult than his method. The Rules for the Direction of the Mind, an unfinished treatise on method left unpublished in Descartes's lifetime has given rise to numerous inconsistent interpretations, nor is it easy to see how it is reflected in his later work. Tarek Dika's new book takes account of startling new manuscript discoveries about the Rules and offers a bold and unified new reading of the text and the project of method in Descartes's thought. It changes the way in which we see Descartes, and will open up new conversations about this canonical figure in the history of philosophy and science. The discussion in Descartes's Method is well-sourced throughout and exhibits an impressive command of Descartes's writings as well as of the relevant context, including the historical background required to understand properly illustrative treatments in the Rules of mathematics and optics. Many scholars have tried to identify Descartes's method with this or that technique, without convincing results. In the most comprehensive study ever written on this topic, Tarek Dika shows that, far from being a uniform procedure, Descartes's method is an acquired habit (habitus) closely related to Aristotelian phronesis. The change of focus is illuminating. The width of views, the clarity of exposition, the breadth of the underlying culture, the search for the highest precision on each point: this is undoubtedly a great book. If Dika is correct, generations of internal, technical reconstruction of Descartes' researches in natural philosophy and the related more narrow sciences will need to be re-written in terms of Descartes' application of (Dika's version of) the method. Descartes's Method by Tarek Dika is perhaps the most thorough book on Descartes's Rules for the Direction of the Mind. It is an exceptional volume written for Cartesian scholars and provides a novel and ingenious interpretation of Descartes's infamous method, reviving it from literary slumber. [...] This publication [...] will spark much needed research and debate on Descartes's early philosophy, especially his method. Dika's work dovetails well with recent strands in the history of science that have attended to the cultivation of judgment and epistemic virtues in scientific practice [...] [and] offers directions for weaving back together historiographies in the history of philosophy and the history of science. Dika's methodology is highly original. His approach to one of the greatest systems of philosophical modernity is based on his reading of a fragmentary text, and on the comparative analysis of the different versions of these fragments. He designs his assessment of the variations from one versionof the Rules to the other as a tool to exhibit the underlying unity of this work.