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Descartes’s Discours de la méthode (Leiden, 1637), Part V, says that machines made to resemble human bodies and imitate human actions could always be told from real people by two means, and that, even if they did some things as well as or better than people, they would act not by knowledge but only by the disposition of their organs. Copy claim link
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Supporting evidence: primary · 1 source
Date 1637 · publication Records dated 1637 → Role Contesting, Earliest located Register (kind of text) Nonfiction Engagement Engages a premise. Gives reasons against a machine’s thinking: speech that answers to the sense of whatever is said and action in all the occurrences of life need reason, a universal instrument, which a machine’s particular dispositions of organs cannot supply. Scope and limits Stated of machines built to resemble human bodies and imitate human actions; the passage is part of Descartes’s account of the difference between people and animals. Published without the author’s name. The wording is the 1637 edition’s, read on page images; spelling as printed, long s as s. Jefferson (1949) is a later contesting text.
The evidence 02 primary source Supports the claim
Discours de la methode (Leiden: Ian Maire, 1637), pp. 56–57 ↗ Bibliothèque nationale de France copy (Gallica), page images as reproduced on Wikimedia Commons · 1637 · In French (fr)
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Source excerpt “s'il y en auoit qui eussent la ressemblance de nos cors, & imitassent autant nos actions que moralement il seroit possible, nous aurions tousiours deux moyens tres certains, pour reconnoistre qu'elles ne seroient point pour cela de vrais hommes.” Location in source Part V, pp. 56–57 (djvu pages 60–61), sentence beginning “Au lieu que s'il y en auoit”
How it was read Retrieved directly from the publisher
Machine-checked · 2026-11-04
Source details and check notes Authors Published without the author’s name (René Descartes) Version Retrieved for the candidate pack on 2026-11-03 (SHA-256 c8f2025f7dfc158ce2c0984b37f55eb561d51d35d9abc713b0235ca05cdc8c05). Title page (djvu page 5): ‘A Leyde, De l’Imprimerie de Ian Maire. CIƆ IƆ C XXXVII.’ Part V, printed pp. 56–57 (djvu pages 60–61); p. 58 (page 62) was retrieved and not quoted. Page hashes: p. 5 2e39c861…, p. 56 64af068c…, p. 57 c8f2025f…, p. 58 41f986ab…. The images are evidence; no Wikipedia article is. Canonical address Open the canonical source ↗ Accessed 2026-11-03 Language French (fr) Attribution Published without the author’s name (René Descartes), “Discours de la methode (Leiden: Ian Maire, 1637), pp. 56–57”, 1637. Reuse No open redistribution licence asserted. Bibliographic metadata, editorial paraphrases and short attributed quotations (at most 50 words each). Recheck terms before wider redistribution. Check notes Candidate pack passage, antecedent texts (research/prehistory). Read on the page image for the candidate pack; it could not be matched mechanically. Page images without a text layer (djvu pages 5, 60, 61 and 62 at 960 px; the hash given is page 61, printed p. 57); quotations transcribed from the images on 2026-11-03. Long s is transcribed as s; u and v, accents, spelling and ‘&’ as printed. The four images have the same SHA-256 values as the copies a second check by a model of another family read. The sentence runs across the page turn; ‘possible’ is divided ‘pos-/sible’. No human editorial review. primary source Supports the claim
Discours de la methode (Leiden: Ian Maire, 1637), pp. 56–57 ↗ Bibliothèque nationale de France copy (Gallica), page images as reproduced on Wikimedia Commons · 1637 · In French (fr)
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Source excerpt “bienqu'elles fissent plusieurs choses, aussy bien, ou peutestre mieux, qu'aucun de nous, elles manqueroient infalliblement en quelques autres, par lesquelles on découuriroit qu'elles n'agiroient pas par connoissance, mais seulement par la disposition de leurs organes” Location in source Part V, p. 57 (djvu page 61), the second means
How it was read Retrieved directly from the publisher
Machine-checked · 2026-11-04
Source details and check notes Authors Published without the author’s name (René Descartes) Version Retrieved for the candidate pack on 2026-11-03 (SHA-256 c8f2025f7dfc158ce2c0984b37f55eb561d51d35d9abc713b0235ca05cdc8c05). Title page (djvu page 5): ‘A Leyde, De l’Imprimerie de Ian Maire. CIƆ IƆ C XXXVII.’ Part V, printed pp. 56–57 (djvu pages 60–61); p. 58 (page 62) was retrieved and not quoted. Page hashes: p. 5 2e39c861…, p. 56 64af068c…, p. 57 c8f2025f…, p. 58 41f986ab…. The images are evidence; no Wikipedia article is. Canonical address Open the canonical source ↗ Accessed 2026-11-03 Language French (fr) Attribution Published without the author’s name (René Descartes), “Discours de la methode (Leiden: Ian Maire, 1637), pp. 56–57”, 1637. Reuse No open redistribution licence asserted. Bibliographic metadata, editorial paraphrases and short attributed quotations (at most 50 words each). Recheck terms before wider redistribution. Check notes Candidate pack passage, antecedent texts (research/prehistory). Read on the page image for the candidate pack; it could not be matched mechanically. Page images without a text layer (djvu pages 5, 60, 61 and 62 at 960 px; the hash given is page 61, printed p. 57); quotations transcribed from the images on 2026-11-03. Long s is transcribed as s; u and v, accents, spelling and ‘&’ as printed. The four images have the same SHA-256 values as the copies a second check by a model of another family read. ‘bienqu’elles’ as printed; line-end hyphens joined. No human editorial review. Status and meaning Editorial status. Machine-checked . Machines found this record and checked it against its sources; no person accepted it individually. Each evidence record above shows how it was checked.
Relation. A passage of the document disputes the proposition or a premise it depends on. The record documents the text’s position, not who is right.
Date. Year in the title-page imprint (Leiden, Ian Maire), read on the page image.
Record ID pre-u02-descartes-1637-contests