Discourse on Method, Optics, Geometry, and Meteorology

This volume preserves the format in which Discourse on Method was originally published: as a preface to Descartes’s writings on optics, geometry, and meteorology. In his introduction, Olscamp discusses the value of reading the Discourse alongside these three works, which sheds new light on Descartes’s method. Includes an updated bibliography.

SKU
26005g

René Descartes
Translated, with Introduction, by Paul J. Olscamp

2001 - 424 pp.

Grouped product items
Format ISBN Price Qty
Cloth 978-0-87220-568-0
$49.00
Paper 978-0-87220-567-3
$20.00

A reprint of the Bobbs-Merrill edition of 1965.

This volume preserves the format in which Discourse on Method was originally published: as a preface to Descartes’s writings on optics, geometry, and meteorology. In his introduction, Olscamp discusses the value of reading the Discourse alongside these three works, which sheds new light on Descartes’s method. Includes an updated bibliography.

 

Contents:

Translator’s Preface. Introduction. Selected Bibliography.

Discourse on the Method for Rightly Directing One’s Reason and Searching for Truth in the Sciences
First Part
Second Part
Third Part
Fourth Part
Fifth Part
Sixth Part

Optics
First Discourse: Of Light
Second Discourse: Of Refraction
Third Discourse: Of the Eye
Fourth Discourse: Of the Senses in General
Fifth Discourse: Of the Images That Form on the Back of the Eye
Sixth Discourse: Of Vision
Seventh Discourse: Of the Means of Perfecting Vision
Eighth Discourse: Of the Shapes That Transparent Bodies Must Have in Order to Divert Rays Through Refraction in Every Way That Is Useful to Sight
Ninth Discourse: The Description of Telescopes
Tenth Discourse: Of the Method of Cutting Lenses

Geometry
First Book: Of Problems That Can Be Constructed Using Only Circles and Straight Lines
Second Book: Of the Nature of Curved Lines
Third Book: Of the Construction of Solid and Supersolid Problems

Meteorology
First Discourse: Of the Nature of Terrestrial Bodies
Second Discourse: Of Vapors and Exhalations
Third Discourse: Of Salt
Fourth Discourse: Of Winds
Fifth Discourse: Of Clouds
Sixth Discourse: Of Snow, Rain, and Hail
Seventh Discourse: Of Storms, Lightning, and All Other Fires That Blaze in the Air
Eighth Discourse: Of the Rainbow
Ninth Discourse: Of the Color of Clouds, and the Circles or Coronas That We Sometimes See Around the Heavenly Bodies
Tenth Discourse: Of the Apparition of Several Suns

Original Index for the Optics, Geometry, and Meteorology.

 

About the Author:

Paul J. Olscamp is Distinguished Service Professor and President Emeritus, Western Washington University.