Descartes said that after he traveled around the world he retired and kept to himself in order to fully evaluate his thoughts regarding the pursuit of knowledge. If he were to do this, we would only see the finished product and not all of the ideas that went through his head. The Discourse is written in a stream of consciousness, but that seems odd due to the fact that he retired in order to more fully evaluate his findings. Wouldn't you think that he would have laid out his writing simpler if he intended it to be read by the general public? If he actually did write word for word like it appears in the translated version, could this have been a rough draft in which Descartes wrote down in order to preserve his ideas but never was able to construct his final draft?
Many aspects of his writings seem to imply that he didn't intend for most people to see it which leads me to believe that there may be some falsehoods in his book. The style he wrote in is very reader-unfriendly (stream of consciousness with many loops), his probable fear of persecution by the church for his ideas, and his involvement with numerous fields outside of philosophy(mathematics, geometry, calculus, anatomy/medicine) could add up to an unfinished or rushed version because his mind was all over the place.
It's extremely possible that I'm wrong, I'm just trying to think outside the box and question what most people would accept as truth. Please share what you think..
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