Discourse on Method, Optics, Geometry, and Meteorology

by Descartes, Rene; Olscamp, Paul J.

• ISBN13: 9780872205680
• ISBN10: 0872205681
• Edition: Revised
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2001-03-01
• Publisher: Hackett Pub Co Inc
• More Book Details

Summary

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. A reprint of the Bobbs-Merrill edition of 1965.

Table of Contents

Translator's Preface	vii
Introduction	ix
Selected Bibliography	xxxv
Discourse on the Method for Rightly Directing One's Reason and Searching for Truth in the Sciences
First Part	4	(7)
Second Part	11	(9)
Third Part	20	(7)
Fourth Part	27	(7)
Fifth Part	34	(15)
Sixth Part	49	(16)
Optics
Of Light	65	(10)
Of Refraction	75	(9)
Of the Eye	84	(3)
Of the Senses in General	87	(4)
Of the Images That Form on the Back of the Eye	91	(10)
Of Vision	101	(13)
Of the Means of Perfecting Vision	114	(13)
Of the Shapes That Transparent Bodies Must Have in Order to Divert Rays Through Refraction in Every Way That Is Useful to Sight	127	(23)
The Description of Telescopes	150	(12)
Of the Method of Cutting Lenses	162	(15)
Geometry
Of Problems That Can Be Constructed. Using Only Circles and Straight Lines	177	(13)
Of the Nature of Curved Lines	190	(38)
Of the Construction of Solid and Supersolid Problems	228	(35)
Meteorology
Of the Nature of Terrestrial Bodies	263	(6)
Of Vapors and Exhalations	269	(6)
Of Salt	275	(12)
Of Winds	287	(11)
Of Clouds	298	(9)
Of Snow, Rain, and Hail	307	(15)
Of Storms, Lightning, and All Other Fires That Blaze in the Air	322	(10)
Of the Rainbow	332	(14)
Of the Color of Clouds, and the Circles or Coronas That We Sometimes See Around the Heavenly Bodies	346	(7)
Of the Apparition of Several Suns	353	(9)
Original Index for the Optics; Geometry, and Meteorology	362