Finishing Discourse on the Method

[acw]

I finished Descartes's Discourse on the Method ... last night. Ordinarily I wouldn't devote three posts to a work that impressed me as little as this one did, but I am surprised at my negative reaction to the work of someone who I always thought was generally respected as a leading figure in Enlightenment philosophy. So, bear with me for a few

Comments

[wrog]

alluding coyly to dark influences that deny him the freedom of speaking plainly about how he comes to his conclusions.
keep in mind the Discourse is dated 1637. Giordano Bruno was burned at the stake in 1600 and Gallileo's heresy trial (after which he spent the rest of his life under house arrest) was in 1633. And I'll grant that France was not Italy -- it probably mattered a lot more what Louis XIII thought about this than what the Pope thought (assuming he gave it any thought at all... and it probably helped a lot that the king was on his deathbed and thus concerned with Other Stuff at that point...) -- but on the other hand openly dissing the Pope in a Catholic country and putting the king/ministers in a position where they have to explicitly tell the Pope/Inquisition to fuck off is not likely to win you lots of friends at court. So when one of the subjects of your work is the existence of God, even if you reach the "correct" conclusion, I imagine you'd still have to tread really carefully.