Theological Origins of Modernity

descartes’ path to truth 185
enthusiasm that in turn produce misery and destruction. What is necessary,
according to Descartes, is not more intelligence and learning, as humanism
suggested, but a method to conduct intelligence to the truth. It is
exactly such a method that he believes he can supply.
Th e Discourse itself is written in autobiographical fashion, and it situates
Descartes’ project in his own time. 65 Th e story is told in narrative
rather than dramatic fashion, and it thus has a historical voice that distances
the reader from the immediacy of the thinker but also gives historical
perspective on the thought itself. In part 1, Descartes discusses his early
life and education. Part 2 begins with a discussion of that wonderful day
in 1619 when Descartes fi rst conceived the foundations of his science. His
account here fi lls in the story that is lacking in the Little Notebook, but it
also leaves out much that was central there. In the Discourse the Rosicrucian
elements and the account of his fabulous dream are excluded. Instead
the story of his discovery is put in the context of the Wars of Religion, and
his refl ections begin not with mathematical or scientifi c matters but with
practical and political concerns.
Descartes in this way ascends onto the stage of the world masked, as he
originally prophesized in the Little Notebook. In contrast to the account
in the Little Notebook, there is no reference to his great enthusiasm nor to
his sense of being possessed by the spirit of truth. Such Hermetic elements
would have endangered the acceptance of the work in orthodox Catholic
circles. Rather, he constructs a Descartes who will be acceptable to his
audience, a Descartes ardent to discover the truth, but a Descartes who
eschews anything theologically or politically suspect. Th is Descartes is not
a Rosicrucian but an orthodox Catholic and loyal subject. Th e Discourse is
the fi rst chapter in a fabulous history of self-creation in and through which
Descartes presents himself as an exemplum to replace the exempla of antiquity
that humanism presented as models of virtue. 66 He thus employs a
humanistic method that goes back at least to Petrarch in order to promote
a project that at its core is centered not on man but on nature and that
seeks to bypass the theological issues of his time.
Th e account is framed by events of the Th irty Years War. Th e work appeared
two years aft er the Peace of Prague had put an end to the civil war
within Germany, but just at a time the European war was breaking out
in Germany. Th e work points back to the beginning of this war almost
two decades before as the starting point of Descartes’ refl ections. To dispel
any suspicions, Descartes mentions that he had attended the coronation
of Ferdinand II, thus giving the impression that he served on the Catholic
side, but he does not actually say this. Descartes tells us how he was delayed