Is Descartes’ Book, “Discourse on Method,” Scientific?

Ah, John, perhaps you’ve never actually read Descartes’ books? Or perhaps you’ve never looked at them closely, or are only parroting what others claim? Whatever the case, in truth, the entire reason Descartes titled his first published book Discourse on Method is because in it, he enumerates his four step scientific method.Ironically, while few people ever take this four step method seriously (I do; it’s awesome), his preface, wherein he enumerates this method, is the main reason this book survives. And for those for whom this four step, scientific method may be of interest, here’s a brief excerpt from one of my books on the subject.

How does Descartes say he arrived at his discoveries? He tells us it took four steps. Here, I voice them as if he is telling them to you.1. You must begin with what is clear and distinct, never accepting anything as true without it being so clear and distinct as to exclude all possibility of doubt. (This is the personal part; here he urges us to trust our intuition.) 2. You must divide each of the things being examined into as many parts as possible and into as many parts as may be necessary for an adequate solution. (This is the materialist part; here he urges us to include facts.) 3. You must begin with the parts which are simplest and easiest to know and only then ascend in complexity, assigning an order to all the parts. (This is the empirical part; here he urges us to do experiments.) 4. Finally you must make enumerations so complete and reviews so general that you will be assured you have omitted nothing. (This is the rationalist part; here he urges us to summarize with ideas, using logic and reason.)

Finally, lest you think this method is less important than Bacon’s contribution, please know Bacon advocated for Induction Reasoning, which most scientists today abhor (I think it’s a necessary part). Oddly, while most philosophical writers seem to think Descartes championed Deductive Reasoning, a close read of these four steps reveals he advocated for both (inductive; his first two steps, and deductive; his second two steps). Perhaps these kinds of wrong-minded assumptions and gross misunderstandings are part of why today’s scientific efforts fail so often? Whatever the case, despite this close to perfect record of failures, few scientists ever question the current method. Were they to consider doing this, they’d find, Descartes’ four steps are one heck of a good place to find remedies for many of the current method’s shortcomings.In truth, the marriage of Descartes plus Bacon is the real hope for a truly scientific method.