Philosophical Works · Theme
Methodical Doubt
How Philosophical Works develops Methodical Doubt.
The systematic questioning of all beliefs to establish a firm foundation for knowledge, as Descartes proposes doubting everything that can be doubted, including sensory perceptions and mathematical truths, to find indubitable certainty.
Where it surfaces
- Discourse on the Method of Rightly Conducting One’s Reason and of Seeking Truth in the Sciences
Descartes systematically doubts all beliefs that are not absolutely certain, including sensory perceptions and mathematical truths, to find an indubitable foundation for knowledge.
- Discourse on the Method
Descartes resolves to reject as absolutely false any opinion that could be doubted, including sensory perceptions and mathematical truths.
- Synopsis of the Six Following Meditations
The First Meditation introduces universal doubt as a tool to eliminate prejudice and withdraw the mind from the senses.
- Meditation I: Of the Things of Which We May Doubt
Descartes introduces his method of hyperbolic doubt, systematically rejecting any belief that can be doubted in order to find indubitable truths.
- Letter of the Author to the French Translator of the Principles of Philosophy Serving for a Preface
Descartes advocates for doubting all that is uncertain as a method to find clear and indubitable principles, rejecting the extremes of total doubt or total reliance on the senses.
- Selections from the Principles of Philosophy
Descartes advocates doubting all that can be doubted—senses, mathematics, even the existence of the external world—as a deliberate method to reach indubitable truth.
- Part I: Of the Principles of Human Knowledge
Descartes proposes a universal doubt of all things that admit even the smallest uncertainty, including sensory perceptions and mathematical truths, as a necessary step to find indubitable knowledge.
- I
The chapter explicitly introduces the principle of doubting all things that admit even the smallest uncertainty, as a foundational step toward truth.
- II
The chapter explicitly recommends considering as false all that is doubtful in order to discover what is most certain.
- IV
The chapter explicitly enacts methodical doubt by questioning the reliability of the senses and the certainty of waking experience.
- Why we may also doubt of mathematical demonstrations
The chapter extends doubt to mathematical demonstrations and self-evident principles, using the hypothesis of a deceiving God.
- XLVII
The chapter emphasizes correcting early prejudices by examining simple notions, a key step in Descartes' method of doubt.
