On Descartes and Purpose

I've just spent the entire day reading Rules for the Direction of the Mind and Discourse on Method. And, I finished the reading and understand what he is saying. However, I sit here and ask, "so what?"

1. Rene Descartes, Rules for the Direction of the Mind, in The Philosophical Writings of Descartes, vol. 1 trans. John Cottingham, Robert Stoothoff, and Dugald Murdoch (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985), 7-76.

2. __________, Discourse on Method 4th ed. trans. Donald A. Cress (Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, 1998).

Edit: I quickly have learned that this is superficial, introduction reading. When I can quote philosophical fragments like I can Scripture I will be on par with Dr. Sepper. He passionately claimed that the Medievals are bullshitting us. Aristotelian phantasms were never meant to abstract a form. They were merely the place where we see the forms. Then he practically threw down his book in disgust concerning a Latin translation. Fun class? Indeed.