2.3 THE IDEA OF A METHOD

Not every philosopher in Llull's time felt compelled to delineate clearly a general method, follow it strictly and pretend this was universal. This rather modern concept comprises Hilbert's "effective procedure" idea, or Turing's machine algorithm, but nothing of the sort existed before Descartes suggested the existence and applicability of a universal "method" (1637). Though he did in no way acknowledge his Lullian debt, Descartes -who knew Llull's work well- did for philosophy what the Majorcan had suggested for logical inquiry in general: establish a set of rules, if possible permanent and universal, and follow them strictly.