The Works of Descartes, Volume 6: Geometry

WORKS OF DESCARTES.

even those who are most difficult to satisfy in everything else are not in the habit of desiring more of it Referring back to "good sense" or reason than they already have. In this, it is unlikely that everyone is mistaken; rather, it bears witness that the power of judging well and distinguishing the true from the false—which is properly what we call "good sense" or "reason"—is naturally equal in all men. And thus, the diversity of our opinions does not arise because some are more rational than
10 others, but only because we lead our thoughts along different paths and do not consider the same things. For it is not enough to have a good mind; the main thing is to apply it well. The greatest souls are capable of the greatest
15 vices as well as the greatest virtues; and those who walk only very slowly can advance much further, follow if they always follow the right path, than those who run and stray from it.

20 were As for me, I have never presumed my mind to be any more perfect than those of the common people; indeed, I have often wished to have a thought as quick, or an imagination as clear and distinct, or a memory as ample or as ready, as some others. And I know of no qualities other than these original: "qualitez," referring to speed of thought, clarity of imagination, and memory which serve to perfect the mind; for as for reason or sense, inasmuch as it is the only thing that makes us human and distinguishes us from the beasts Descartes famously held that animals were "automata" or machines, lacking the rational soul that defines humanity, I prefer to believe that it is entire in each person, and to follow in this the common opinion of the Philosophers This refers to the Scholastic tradition, based on Aristotle, which was the standard university curriculum of Descartes' time, who say that there is "more" or "less" only among the...