Discourse on the Method of Rightly Conducting One's Reason and of
Seeking Truth in the Sciences (French: Discours de la Méthode Pour bien
conduire sa raison, et chercher la vérité dans les sciences) is a
philosophical and autobiographical treatise by René Descartes. Discourse
on the Method is one of the most influential works in the history of
modern philosophy, and important to the development of natural sciences.
In this work, Descartes tackles the problem of skepticism, which had
previously been studied by other philosophers. While addressing some of
his predecessors and contemporaries, Descartes modified their approach
to account for a truth he found to be incontrovertible; he started his
line of reasoning by doubting everything, so as to assess the world from
a fresh perspective, clear of any preconceived notions. Together with
Meditations on First Philosophy, Principles of Philosophy and Rules for
the Direction of the Mind, it forms the base of the epistemology known
as Cartesianism.