Discourse on the Method/Translator's Preface

by John Veitch

TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE.

With respect to the Tract, of which a translation is here presented, it may be proper to state, that what refers strictly to its matter has been reserved for the Introduction.

It may be necessary, however, here to mention, that the Discourse on Method is possessed of a twofold value and interest; firstly, on account of the doctrines which, viewed in itself, the Tract contains; and, secondly, from its being the general introduction to the works of Descartes, which, as is well known, were the means of eliciting the intense philosophical activity of the last two centuries, of determining the current of this activity, and of raising those problems with which philosophical schools continue at this hour to grapple.—The Translator would consider that an important end had been promoted were the present translation of the Method to aid in fixing the attention of those interested in philosophical pursuits on the other works of its great Author.

It is hoped, moreover, that the Method may prove a somewhat suitable accompaniment to the Logic of the Port-Royal. These treatises possess each, indeed, a separate utility: and, though the end sought by each is different, the realization of the ends of both is necessary to perfect knowledge. For while the practical end of Logic is the right ordering of the matter of thought, the end of the Discourse on Method is mainly to manifest the reality, and determine the sphere of knowledge and the latter process does not yield in importance or necessity to the former.

With reference to the translation, it is proper to state that, though the French work has been taken as the basis, the Translator has not considered himself bound to adhere, in every instance, to its text. The first, or French edition has, indeed, been carefully compared throughout with the Latin; and, as this edition is declared by Descartes to have been revised by himself, and to contain amendments on the original from his own hand, the preference has been accorded to it in all cases in which it has appeared to the Translator that the meaning is more perfectly given.^[1]

The Translator is not aware of the existence of any previous English version of the Method.

The Translator willingly takes this opportunity of acknowledging his great obligations to Professor McDougall. To his minute revision of the translation numerous improvements are due.

Edinburgh, October 1850.

1. Compare, e.g., Rule III., Method, Part II., in the French and Latin.