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).

Tarek Dika, Assistant Professor, University of Toronto

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.

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