... in which nothing would be presupposed which was not self-evident and certain. He was determined to start again from the beginning and was resolved to rely only on his own reason, not on any philosophical authority, which means that he deliberately broke with his past. Descartes proposes a method to reach this philosophical truth, consisting of rules to be followed. These rules are to be found in this book. Descartes talks about the role that experimentation has as a methodical instrument in his writing, where he stresses that one must do experiments in order to distinguish all the various forms or species of bodies: ...unless we rise to causes through their effects, and avail ourselves of many particular experiments. [Page 49] Descartes stresses that nature is so ample and vast, and the principles so simple and general, that few objects can be reached in only one mode from the ...

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