»Three or four maxims...«

Abstract

In the Discours de la Méthode Descartes mentions three or four maxims of his temporary morals. How to understand this indetermination? The author, after sketching two interpretations of this locus (F. Alquié and J.-M. Beyssade), attempts an analysis of the first maxim, which shows its internal bifurcation. It's actually composed of two promises. After the initial promise to external authorities, which is sometimes seen as the entire first maxim there appears an often unseen or underestimated second one, according to which it's not appropriate to make promises concerning matters, that are subject to changeable judgements. Between the promise of loyalty to external authorities and the freedom of rational researches arises a tension difficult to surmount. The author is pledging for the priority of the promise made to himself, which is the only one to provide an adequate basis for the wanted freedom of scientific research, and is from this point of view the fundamental maxim of Descartes's morals. The so called fourth maxim only reformulates and develops it in a »safe« distance from the opposition of the strategically declarative beginning of the first.