Descartes: A Biography

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 Descartes: A Biography

try to choose the best one’ (vi.). None seemed more attractive than the

oneonwhich he had tentatively embarked. ‘I thought I could do no better

than to persevere in the very same occupation that I already had, that is, to

use my whole life to develop my reason and to make as much progress as

I could in discovering the truth in accordance with the method that I had

prescribed for myself ’ (vi.). It may seem remarkable in retrospect that

it took Descartes nine years, since the ‘wonderful discovery’ of November

, before he could formulate a sufficiently explicit and detailed strategy

forrealizing his vaguely understood objective. The length of time involved,

and the relative lack of creative work that he completed during this period,

suggest that he was still very much in search of a clear guide to his life’s

work during the years before he emigrated again to the United Provinces.

The intermittent search for the right path eventually came to fruition. As

Descartes records in theDiscourse,‘Iwas much more successful in this, it

seems to me, than I would have been had I never left either my country or

mybooks’ (vi.–).