Since ancient times, many people have talked about methods, but Descartes' methodology is different and can be considered as "the method of methods".

Descartes' methodology is to tell people how to understand the world we live in as a whole, not on a specific issue. This is of course one of the most important things for a person. If we don't know how to know the world we live in, how can we be human? .

Know the first lesson and learn Descartes' methodology.

2. The necessity of learning Descartes methodology;

Everyone wants to do something and succeed, but the actual situation is often far from expectations. Why? There are many reasons, among which the most important, common and unrecognized reason is that people have not mastered the real methodology.

As the effect of doing things, the most critical factor is to have a correct understanding of things, which can never happen out of thin air and must rely on methodology.

When it comes to methodology, no one will be unfamiliar, and even quite a few people will think that they have mastered many good methodologies. Is this really the case? Not at all. Few people in this world really understand methodology, and the measure of this problem is very simple, that is, whether they really master Descartes' methodology.

People don't know how to learn and master Descartes methodology, but they are learning all kinds of so-called self-help methods and skills. What is the actual effect? Quite the opposite. It is believed that only by mastering Descartes' methodology can knowledge have a foundation and carrier, otherwise, it will always be inevitable to be dispersed.

3. The method of learning Descartes' methodology:

Recognize the uniqueness of Descartes' methodology. Descartes' "methodology" mentioned above is a methodological method, and no one in the world can beat it. Therefore, Descartes' "methodology" should not be confused with others' methodology.

Descartes' "methodology" is a complete system and inseparable. Learn to "step by step, hole by hole, hole by hole". Anyone who thinks that Descartes' methodology can be studied selectively is a person who really doesn't understand Descartes' methodology.

We should not only learn Descartes' "methodology", but also understand it. Learn to chew slowly; Enlightenment should be closely linked with practice. Anyone who thinks that Descartes' "methodology" can be easily mastered is a person who really doesn't understand Descartes' "methodology".

The first part of conscience

1. Descartes' basic view on "conscience" in Methodology;

Conscience is the most evenly distributed thing in the world, and the ability to do the right thing, judge and distinguish between true and false, which is actually what we call conscience or reason, is naturally equal to everyone.

It is not enough to have a good mind, but mainly to use it correctly. As for me, I have never been conceited that my mind is more perfect than the average person's, but I can say without hesitation that I feel very lucky. Since my youth, I have found some methods, which have aroused my thinking and gained some axioms. I formed a method from these thoughts and axioms. With this method, I feel that I can rely on it, and I can gradually improve my knowledge and give it to me bit by bit.

I can't help but feel extremely satisfied with the progress I think I have made in the pursuit of truth, so that I have such great hope for the future: if there is a good and important career among pure human beings, I believe it is my chosen career.

I am very willing to tell you what I have followed in this conversation and describe my life vividly for everyone to judge. My plan is how I try to use my reason.

2. Learning experience:

Descartes' emphasis on "conscience" lies in explaining the basis of human cognition. In other words, if people have no conscience or can't use it reasonably, no matter how they study and practice, it is impossible to have a correct cognition.

Everyone has a conscience, but why do people have such different understandings? Most people just look for reasons for the difference between study and practice, but Descartes doesn't think so. Descartes believes that the more important reason why people have different understandings is that people don't know how to better develop and use their "conscience". He used his own personal experience to illustrate this point: Descartes was intelligent, diligent and studious, and received a comprehensive education from an early age. He entered the most famous school in Europe and has always been regarded as a successful and outstanding person. However, the more he studied, the more he felt that "he didn't get any other benefits from studying hard, but he became more and more aware of his ignorance." Therefore, at work, he "completely gave up the study of books and made up his mind not to learn any other knowledge except what we can find in our own or the world's great books, so I spent the rest of my youth traveling". Descartes finally summed up a set of "methods" of using conscience through his own personal practice, that is, Descartes' "methodology".

Descartes' ability to find "methodology" lies in his correct understanding of two basic points: the first is that practice produces true knowledge. Because he believes that "if a practitioner makes a wrong judgment, the consequences of his inference will immediately punish him, while the inferences made by scholars about speculation will not produce any results." The consequence of these inferences is that the farther away from common sense, the greater vanity he may get from it, because to make these inferences look close to reality, he must use more intelligence and skills. " So "I have always had a great desire to learn to distinguish between true and false." The second is to study yourself. One day I made up my mind to study myself and use all my spiritual strength to choose the way we should go. Because people's understanding often comes not from "conscience" but from "rules and habits", which are enough to cover up our natural brilliance and make us unable to obey the rational command.

What is the conclusion of studying the first part of Descartes' Methodology? Whether it is self-education or educating others, we must first understand the relationship between this kind of education and "conscience". What are the benefits? This is a question of "education" consciousness. So Descartes' "methodology" puts "conscience" in the first place of methodology.

Part II Orders

1. Descartes' basic view on "order" in "methodology";

The first one is: never accept what I don't know as true, that is to say, pay attention to avoid hasty judgment and prejudice, and only let me doubt what is clearly presented in front of my mind.

The second is to divide every problem I have investigated into small parts as much as possible until it can and is suitable for a satisfactory solution.

The third is to guide my thoughts. In order to start with the simplest and most understandable objects and gradually rise to the understanding of complex objects, even if there is no natural order between them, I will set an order for them.

The last one is: list all the situations as completely as possible and investigate them as widely as possible, so that I can be sure that I have not missed anything.

2. Learning experience:

Truth is often in the hands of a few people. Descartes said: "The knowledge in books, at least the knowledge that has only possible reasons and has not been proved, is formed by the opinions of many different people, and their closeness to the truth is not comparable to the simple reasoning that a conscientious person naturally makes about what he encounters." Generally speaking, the understanding of things can be divided into three categories: ontology, epistemology and practice, and the general people's understanding is mainly in the category of practice. Although we have a lot of understanding of the category of practice, if we leave the guidance of ontology and epistemology, we will become passive water and trees without roots. On the contrary, there are very few people whose knowledge is based on ontology and epistemology, so they are closer to the truth.

A person's knowledge has deviated from the track of knowing the truth since childhood. Descartes said, "since we are all children before adulthood, we must be dominated by our desires and our teachers for a long time, and teachers often conflict with each other. None of them may always teach us the best point of view, so our judgment is almost impossible to be as pure and reliable as that obtained by fully utilizing our rationality and always accepting sexual guidance at birth." People have nature, which is the foundation of correct understanding. Human nature is what Descartes called rationality, and understanding can only be "pure and reliable" if it comes from nature. However, the education of most people can't help to stimulate human nature, but suppress it and even annihilate it. Therefore, people have deviated from the right path of understanding since childhood, even Descartes himself has not been spared, but he later found the right path, and his "methodology" is to tell people the right path of understanding.

The methodology established by Descartes is unprecedented. Descartes said, "It is really impossible to reform the whole study or the rules of teaching all kinds of study in schools. However, when it comes to those views that I believe in until now, I have no other better way. Only by clearing them out can I make room, and then I can either put some other better opinions or put them back when I put the original opinions on a rational scale. I deeply believe that this method will guide my life, and my achievements will greatly exceed those principles that are based only on the old foundation and only on whether it is true when I was young. " Descartes' "methodology" is not a specific method in cognition, but a system of methods. This system contains ontology, epistemology and practice, so it is brand-new and complete.

Descartes established "methodology" from scratch. Descartes said: "I am like a person who gropes for progress alone in the dark, so I am determined to walk slowly and pay great attention to everything, so that even if I make little progress, I can at least guard against falling;" I don't even want to start to completely abandon any opinions that sneak into my trust without rational guidance. On the contrary, I spend enough time in advance to make plans for my work and seek real ways to acquire all the knowledge that my brain can achieve. "because it is from scratch, the process of establishment is like' moving forward in the dark'. This feeling is not unique to Descartes, but is shared by anyone who has formed a new idea from "ontology, epistemology to practice". The road of "marching in the dark" is the road of God and the road of death. Anyone who walks past will see the "magic card", and there is often only one ending, "martyrdom".

There is not much real knowledge. Descartes said: "I believe that there are only four rules that constitute logic." As long as I have made a firm and lasting determination and will not fail to abide by it at any time, that is enough. " To understand things, the decisive factor is the "understanding order" that things should follow. Descartes summed up this "order" in four ways, but few people can really understand its value.

Limitations of Descartes' "Methodology". Descartes said: "I noticed that all scientific principles should be obtained from philosophy, and I can't find any definite principles in philosophy, so I think I should try to establish the principles in philosophy first." I also think this job is the most important thing in the world. Although Descartes knew how to establish the foundation of methodology from ontology, it is a pity that he never really established an ontological understanding of methodology in his life. There are only two basic principles in the ontological understanding of "methodology": "one divides into four" and "Tao gives birth to one, one life to two, three lives to three lives". Without the "methodology" of ontological understanding, like a dragon without eyes, it is yes rather than alive.

Part III Discipline

1. Descartes' basic view of "methodology" about "discipline";

The first item: I will abide by the laws and customs of our country, stick to the religious beliefs entrusted to me by God since I was a child, and follow the opinions accepted by the people who are most in line with the middle way, farthest from extremes and wisest on the whole in all other matters. I will get along with them in practice.

Second: I should be as firm and decisive as possible in my actions. Once I decide to adopt some opinions, I will always abide by them, even if they are extremely suspicious, just as they are very reliable.

The third item: I will always only seek to conquer myself, not to conquer fate, but to change my desire and world order. Generally speaking, it is necessary to form a habit and believe that nothing is completely within my ability except our thoughts. In this way, after I try my best to do things outside of us, what we can't do is absolutely impossible for us.

2. Learning experience:

Why did Descartes set himself a "discipline"? Descartes said: "In order to make me doubt my opinion when I am driven by acceptability, don't hesitate to act. In order to let me live the happiest life possible, I have set myself a temporary code of conduct. " Simply put, it is to overcome your laziness and arbitrariness. People are sui and random, so people often know what to do but don't do it or can't. Descartes gave himself discipline, in order to ensure that his rational norms can be really implemented, so that there will be results.

Why did Descartes set such a "discipline" for himself? These three subjects are of great significance, from which we can see the high level of Descartes. Regarding the first item, the key point is to understand things from the most common and basic perspective. However, many people always like to be curious and unconventional when studying problems, thinking that being different is brilliant, but the actual situation is just the opposite, and the truth is always hidden in the most common and basic places. Regarding the second item, the key point is persistence. Only by strict observation can any knowledge finally reach a conclusion, and even a wrong understanding can only be proved wrong after strict observation. However, most people learn only after tasting, and only after tasting can they produce uncertain knowledge because they see the final result, while the initial uncertain knowledge will produce more uncertain knowledge. The cognitive system formed in this way often seems huge, but in fact it has no foundation like a house by the sea and can't stand the wind and waves. Regarding the third item, the focus is on "confirmation". Man's knowledge cannot exhaust the whole world, in other words, man's knowledge is quite limited compared with the world, so there is a basic contradiction in cognition, that is, the contradiction between the unknowability of things and the certainty of cognition. Descartes found a solution to this contradiction, and the third item is the expression of this method. Only when we regard what we can't do as absolutely impossible, can people's understanding be sure and get rid of imagination and doubt. Only these confirmed understandings can be applied, but most people don't understand this truth, or they are agnostics or take it for granted. These people can neither have a clear understanding, nor can they put it into practice and produce practical results.

There are two principles about "discipline" that need to be supplemented: one is "be quiet and then observe". One of the most important tasks of education is to teach "quietness". If learners can't be quiet, teaching is impossible. Unfortunately, the current education completely violates this principle. Second, "if you do it, call it a meeting." Some people think that "I understand" means yes or no; Some people think that "speaking out" means affirmation or negation; Some people think that "writing clearly" means affirmation or negation; The real "will" is "doing".

The fourth part of the realm

1. Descartes' basic view of "methodology" on "realm";

The first principle of learning philosophy is "I think, therefore I am."

What am I? I exist. If I stop thinking, even if everything else I imagine is true, I have no reason to believe in my existence. From this, I realized that I was an entity. The whole essence or essence of this entity is only thought. It doesn't need to exist anywhere, and it doesn't depend on any substance. Therefore, this me, that is, the heart that I become myself, is completely different from the body, and even easier to know than the body. Even if the body doesn't exist, the mind is still its mind.

My conclusion is that "everything we understand and imagine very clearly is true."

Where do I get the idea of something more complete than myself? I clearly know that this should come from a more perfect nature in fact, and it is put into my heart by a truly more perfect nature than me, and this nature has all the perfection I think, that is, in a word, God.

Now that I know that there are some integrity that I don't have, I am not the only entity that exists, but there must be another more perfect entity as my reliance and the source of everything I rely on. Because if I exist alone without relying on any other entity, so I get everything from that perfect entity, then I can get the rest from myself for the same reason, so that I can become an infinite, eternal, unchanging, all-knowing and all-powerful entity with everything I can know about the completeness of God.

Because God is a perfect entity, because everything we have comes from God. It can be seen that our ideas and concepts, in terms of their clarity, are all real things from God, so they can only be true. If they are so confused in our hearts, it is only because we are not perfect yet.

2. Learning experience:

Descartes put forward "I think, therefore I am". What's the point? The so-called "my existence" is relative, relative to our understanding of things. Descartes investigated all the understandings, and they all have one thing in common, that is, uncertainty. So Descartes thinks that only "what I know" is certain.

Descartes believes that "I who know things" is not "I in the flesh", but "I who can think" living in the flesh. This understanding of "thinking about me" does not come from philosophical speculation, nor from an emotion, but from personal feelings. People who don't feel this way can't understand it at all, just as Descartes said, "It's as difficult to hear the sound as to smell the smell with your eyes." However, there are very few people who have this kind of personal feeling.

Descartes believes that "what I know" is perfect, and this conclusion is based on life experience, that is, the idea that behavior obeys "what I know" is always correct. So Descartes thinks that the perfection of "I know things" can't come from myself, but from God, because only God is perfect. On the other hand, if we are "confused, it can only be ourselves, because we are not perfect."

The reason why this part of Descartes' understanding is defined as "realm" is because it needs a general realm of Descartes to produce such an understanding. This realm does not come from speculation, from hard work, from everything else, but from "God is in our hearts".

What does "God is in our hearts" mean? It is "to go to the virtual pole to rest quietly." It is not a consciousness, but an actual state of the body, that is, the brain is in an ischemic state but can remain calm. There are many centers in our brain. If the brain is congested, then all the centers in the brain are active, so the instructions and information generated must interfere with each other. So it is impossible to have a clear and definite understanding of things. Only when the brain is in an ischemic state and all other centers are shut down due to ischemia can the brain have a clear understanding of things.

Can the realm of "getting rid of emptiness and resting in peace" be achieved? The answer is "difficult". If it is realized, the body will be "dangerous". Only when the human body enters the state of "inducing virtual quietness" can it "observe" the order of things. Only by seeing the "order" of things clearly can understanding begin. The "order" of everything is complicated, not obvious at a glance, and it needs to be "quiet" for a long time. The "virtual pole" takes a long time, and the body will be disordered, sick or even dead due to cerebral ischemia, so it is "dangerous".

Part V Application

1. Descartes' basic view of "methodology" on "application";

I also dare to say that I not only found satisfactory methods to solve all the major problems commonly discussed in philosophy in a short time, but also observed some laws. On the one hand, God established these laws in nature, on the other hand, he imprinted their concepts on our hearts. Therefore, after fully reflecting on them, we will never doubt that these laws are observed by everything that exists and happens in the world.

I am happy to express a series of other truths I have deduced from these basic principles here. Explain my thoughts on light, talk about the sun and stars, talk about the sky, talk about planets, comets and the earth, talk about all the objects on the earth, and finally talk about people.

I also described rational thinking and explained that rational thinking must not come from the power of matter like other things we talked about. It should obviously be created. Our mind is completely independent of the body, so it will never be the same as the body; Since there is no other reason to destroy the mind, it will naturally come to the conclusion that the mind is not.

2. Learning experience:

Descartes' achievement is the best example of Descartes' methodology. Descartes (1596— 1650), an outstanding mathematician and philosopher, was one of the founders of modern science. The methodology was published in 1637, and the philosophical principles were published in 1644. Descartes brought philosophy and science not a new viewpoint or conclusion, but a new era. He drew a tree of human knowledge. The root of this tree is metaphysics or first philosophy, the trunk is physics or natural science, and the branches are concrete science.

Descartes believes that in order to establish a huge system of human knowledge, experience and life, we must first have the necessary tools, which are logic or scientific methods, because only by mastering the tools to discover truth can we discover truth.