...I thought it necessary that I do exactly the opposite, and that I reject as absolutely false everything in which I could imagine the least doubt, in order to see whether, after this process, something in my beliefs remained that was entirely indubitable. Pg. 18
I was immediately struck by the similarity between this sentiment and Bacon's "if a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts; but if he will be content to begin in doubts he shall end in certainties." Both use doubt as their cornerstone and have a lust for science with which they will become in Descartes word's (and Bacon's too...) "masters and possessors of nature (35)." They seem to be speaking the same language. I was struck, however, by one radical difference between the two. Bacon seems to stress the objective perspective for every issue, including philosophy, while there could be nothing more subjective than "I think, therefore I am." My more "conventional" question would be "how well do Bacon and Descartes reconcile with each other - Would Bacon be okay with Descartes' guidelines for finding one's first truth?" However, I would like to talk about the feasibility of any man attempting Descartes' plan for obtaining truth. Particularly, is this a text that many (or any) can base their lives off of, or is it impossible to truly doubt all things (as one might point his seemingly flawed reasoning for 'I think, therefore I am as evidence)?
I am glad someone brought up the relationship between Descartes and Bacon. When you said, however, "would Bacon be okay with Descartes," it reminded me of the part in the Discourse where he spoke of the students as Ivy on p.39. Descartes says: "They are like ivy, which never stretches higher than the trees supporting it, and which often descends again after it has reached their tops... they want in addition to find the solutions there to many difficulties about which he says nothing and about which he has never thought." I am still doggedly interested in the question you have proposed there, but I found what Descartes said there strikingly applicable to our role as students.
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