The discourse on Method was written in the 17th century during what is now known as the scientific revolution. During this time people were beginning to question the old way of thinking, based on Medieval Aristotelianism in light of the new way of thinking, based more on science. The Medieval way of thinking was based mostly on Catholicism and the belief in God. In the text author René Descartes, expresses his doubts and concerns about beliefs based on Catholocism. Other philosophers such as Galileo, who had ideas similar to Descartes’, were condemned for the publication on their beliefs. For this reason Descartes decided not to publish The discourse on Method until years later.

In part IV of The discourse on Method Descartes desperately searches for a explanation of the things that we believe to be “unquestionably true”. He decides that the best was to do so was to disregard not regard these things as “unquestionably false” instead. He went as far as to pretend that his body did not exist and that averting that he had ever taught of was nothing more than a mere dream and did not exist in real life. Before he could even begin to imagine his non-existence, it occurred to him that fact that he could even think that everything was false proved that he existed. He stated “But no sooner had I embarked on this project than I noticed that while I was trying in this way to think everything to be false it had to be the case that I, who was thinking this, was something.” From this discovery he came up with his first principle “I think, therefore I am.

The surprise ending came when Descartes concludes that his thoughts are proof that God exists. He explains because humans are imperfect and the sky, the earth, light, and other objects could be delusions, the idea of God could not be a delusion and thus God is real. Imperfect humans could not conceive of a perfect God