DISCOURSE ON THE METHOD

12

...not that I would advise anyone to imitate me. Those whom God has more generously gifted with His grace will perhaps have loftier designs, but I fear that this project is already too daring for many. The mere resolution to strip oneself of all opinions previously accepted as true is not an example that everyone should follow. Indeed, the world is almost entirely composed of two types of minds for whom such a path is not at all suitable. First, there are those who, believing themselves more capable than they actually are, cannot help but rush their judgments, nor do they have enough patience to organize in an orderly fashion all their thoughts. Consequently, if they once took the liberty of doubting the principles they received and straying from the common path, they would never be able to keep to the path one must take to go more directly, and they would remain lost all their lives. Second, there are those who have enough reason or modesty to judge that they are less capable of distinguishing truth from falsehood than others by whom they could be instructed; these people should be content to follow the opinions of those others rather than search for better ones themselves.

As for me, I would undoubtedly have been , among the number of the latter, if I had only ever had one single master, or if I had not known the differences that have existed throughout time between the opinions of the most learned. But, having learned since my time at school Descartes attended the prestigious Jesuit college of La Flèche; here he critiques the inconsistencies of the Scholastic tradition. that one could not imagine anything ’ so strange and so unbelievable that it has not been said by some philosopher; and later, while traveling, having recognized that all those who have sentiments very contrary to ours are not, for that reason, barbarians or savages, but that many use reason as much as or more than we do; and having considered how the very same man, with the same mind, being raised from infancy among the French or Germans, becomes different from what he would be if he had always lived among the Chinese or the Cannibals A term used in the 17th century to refer to the indigenous peoples of the Americas, often used in philosophical discussions about cultural relativism.; and how, even down to the fashions of our clothes, the same thing that pleased us ten years ago, and which will perhaps please us again ten years from now, seems to us now extravagant and ridiculous; so that it is much more custom and example that persuade us than any certain knowledge; and yet, a plurality of voices original: "pluralité des voix" — referring to a majority opinion or consensus. is not a proof of any value for truths that are a little difficult to discover, because it is much more likely that a single man would have encountered them than an entire people—I could not choose anyone whose opinions seemed to me should be preferred to

))those of others, and I found myself as if forced to undertake the task of guiding myself.