Os quatro preceitos metodológicos do Discurso do Método

Fis paper aims at fulfilling two objectives: a) evaluate in which way we can attribute auto-sufficiency to the famous methodological precepts of the Second Part of the Discourse on Method; b) propose an interpretation of these precepts that takes into account its context, the other methodological works and the Cartesian thought as a whole, but, mainly, that revaluates the methodological elements that were either under or overestimated. The most relevant conclusions are: (1) the four Discourse’s precepts congregate the totality of the method, but in a condensed way, and, as such, they are not auto-comprehensible; 2) a good comprehension of the method must contemplate other texts (beginning with those that are part of the 1637 publication), but mainly it must calibrate the weight of how each precept is understood based on its function and on what it is attributed to execute, being the secondmost depreciated among them.