The Method on Superphysics

The Purpose of this book

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The 2 General means for preserving clarity in the search for truth, which will be the subject of this book.

In the previous books, we have seen that man is extremely prone to error.

What kind of attention is required to preserve certainty in our knowledge

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How modifications of the soul make it attentive, yet divide its capacity for perception**

The understanding only perceives.

There is no difference within the understanding itself between simple perceptions, judgments, and reasonings — except that judgments and reasonings are far more complex perceptions than simple ones.

How to Use the passions and the senses to sustain the mind’s attention

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The passions that are useful for stirring us to seek truth are those that give us the strength and courage to overcome the effort we find required to focus our thoughts.

The use of organization to maintain the mind's attention, and on the usefulness of geometry

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One must exercise great circumspection in the choice and use of the aids one can draw from the senses and passions to render oneself attentive to truth, because our passions and senses affect us too vividly and fill the mind’s capacity to such an extent that it often sees only its own sensations when it thinks it is discovering things in themselves. But it is not the same with the aids one can draw from the imagination: they make the mind attentive without uselessly occupying its capacity, and thus they wonderfully help to perceive objects clearly and distinctly, so that it is almost always advantageous to use them. But let us make this clear with a few examples.

The Rules

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Means of increasing the extent and capacity of the mind. That arithmetic and algebra are absolutely necessary for this.

One must not first imagine that one can ever truly increase the capacity and extent of one’s mind. The soul of man is, so to speak, a determinate quantity or a portion of thought which has limits it cannot surpass; the soul cannot become greater or more extensive than it is; it does not swell or expand as one believes liquids and metals do; in short, it seems to me that it never perceives more at one time than at another.