Rene Descartes credited his success in philosophy, mathematics, and physics to the discovery of a universal method of inquiry, but he provided no systematic description of his method. Descartes and Method carefully examines Descartes' scattered remarks on his application and puts forward a systematic account of his method with particular attention to the role it plays in the Meditations.
Daniel E. Flage and Clarence A. Bonnen boldly and convincingly argue against the orthodox conception that Descartes had no method. Through a rigorous and thorough examination, Flage and Bonnen unearth and explain the role of the method of analysis in the Meditations.
Descartes and Method is a ground-breaking book that is sure to make a considerable impact on the philosophy community. Anyone wishing to gain a new understanding of Descartes's Meditations should read this book.

Through an examination of Descartes's scattered remarks on the method and its application in his scientific and mathematical works, Daniel E. Flage and Clarence A. Bonnen develop a systematic account of the method and its role in the Meditations. In the first part of the book, Flage and Bonnen interpret the Cartesian search for essences as both a search for laws and conceptual elucidation. In the second half, we see that each meditation is examined in light of the interpretation of method. The interplay between the search for general principles and the clarification of ideas looms large in the discussions of Mediations II and III. This book explains how Descartess last three meditations do nothing more than reveal the implications of Gods non-deceptiveness. We see then, that in the end, Descartes, the great rationalist, specifies the scope and limits of empiricism. The text delineates the role of the method of analysis in the Meditations.