Discours de la methode pour bien conduire sa raison, & chercher la verité dans les sciences
René Descartes’s Discours de la méthode, published without the author’s name at Leiden by Ian Maire in 1637, read in page images of the Bibliothèque nationale de France copy. The year is that of the title-page imprint.
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- Exact source
- Discours de la methode (Leiden: Ian Maire, 1637), pp. 56–57 Bibliothèque nationale de France copy (Gallica), page images as reproduced on Wikimedia Commons · published 1637 · 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. · In French (fr)
Appears in
- Antecedent texts: machine intelligence before 1965 →1 record on this document
- Propositions about superintelligence, 1863–2025 →1 record on this document
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Contests · 1
Propositions a passage of this document disputes, or a premise they depend on.
- A machine could thinkDescartes’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.1637 · publication · Stated in source · Supported Inspect claim & evidence ↗A machine could think: propositions page →
Bears on · 1
Propositions a passage comes close to without meeting the criterion; each record names what is missing.
- Behavioural tests as evidence of what a system isDescartes’s Discours de la méthode (1637), Part V, says that a machine could be made to utter words, even words suited to actions on its body, but not to arrange them to answer the sense of whatever is said in its presence, and that a machine doing some things as well as people would fail in others; by these two means machines could always be told from people.1637 · publication · Stated in source · Supported Inspect claim & evidence ↗Behavioural tests as evidence of what a system is: propositions page →
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