This surprise is first revealed after three paragraphs of Descartes debating the truth of his own existence between the conscious awake times and the unconscious dream times and the relationship to things in nature. According to Descartes (1636), “In thinking it is necessary to exist” and “that all things which we very clearly and distinctly conceive are true.” It is at that point that his focus turns to describing the proof of existence of God as the creator of all imperfect things.…
Descartes believed what he perceived clearly and distinctly is that God would be the cause for his hand…
Descartes later reformulated the ontological argument, who sought to prove the existence of God through reason alone. He stated that he exists, and in his mind he has the concept of a perfect being, and as an imperfect being, he could not have conjured up the idea of a perfect being, therefore this idea must have originated from the perfect being itself, and this perfect being must exist in order to be perfect, consequently a perfect being exists. He also stated that the idea of God is the idea of a perfect being, and a supremely perfect being has all perfections, existence is perfection, a supremely perfect being must have existence, therefore it is impossible to think of God as not existing, hence God exists.…
Descarte would also agree with the statement, as in his ontological argument he sets out that God is a perfect being, a part of being perfect is existing, and therefore God must exist. Descarte also uses the idea of the triangle in his argument, he writes that even if we think of triangles having four sides, the truth will not change; the triangle will remain to have 3 sides. For Descarte the triangle is God, he believes that God is immutable and will not change even if humans think he does not exist. Descarte would argue…
The essence of the main argument in the fourth Meditation of Descartes is to establish that there is a difference between God: his creator and himself, and how this difference does not taint the infinite abilities of God. Descartes commences his argument by first establishing his idea of being a thinking being. In his previous book, The Discourse on Method and Meditations on First Philosophy he sates,…
Descartes thinks that since we all have an innate idea of a perfect being, then that perfect being, which he calls God, has to exist, or else it would not be perfect anymore. There are two problems with this line of thought. First, do we really have an innate idea of a perfect being? Wouldn’t we need to acquire the concept of “perfect” and “being” first? It is true that we could not have directly seen or experienced a perfect being in real life, but that does not mean the idea of a perfect being has to be innate. Rather, we can form this idea merely by experiencing non-perfect beings and imagining the opposite, just like how we develop the idea of immaterial things after we have seen or experienced material things. Therefore, the idea of a perfect being is not innate, and in fact, it is possible for us never to have that idea at all. On the other hand, why must a perfect being exist? Why should existence be better, “more perfect,” than non-existence? Descartes does not give us enough evidence of the “perfectness” of existence, and thus existence cannot be guaranteed as an essential part of the perfect being’s property. Now I have shown that Descartes’ main argument for God’s existence is flawed, although I still do not rule out the possibility of God’s…
Humans seem to be an entity made up by a combination of both physical properties and mental properties. Folk psychology of soul proposed by Bering (2006) suggested “common-sense mind-body dualism” is a cognitive adaptation that evolved through natural selection. According to this quote, it is believed that individual is fundamentally constituted of body, mind and volition. For centuries, people have tried to discover what makes an individual from philosophical, psychological and physiological perspectives. At different stages of this knowledge in understanding human beings, behaviourism, humanism and the study of consciousness will be critically evaluated in this discussion.…
Rene Descartes, a French philosopher attempted to craft groundwork to establish further scientific developments. He rationed that once one knows the foundations of a belief and one builds upon that, much of what one believes can be doubted. He held that through using math’s methods, he could apply these same methodologies to other ideas. Descartes believed that nothing can be perceived more easily and evidently than his own mind. By applying his theory, that he knew nothing for certain but was aware of his own thought, he started to combat already instituted ideas and conjured up the existence of…
In the article “The Good, Racist People,” Ta-Nehisi Coates discusses an event which resulted in Forest Whitaker being accused of shoplifting. What could possibly be a reason to assume Whitaker, a famous actor, had committed shoplifting? From Coates’ point of view, many others want to believe that this encounter was a misunderstanding that had nothing to do with race. Whitaker was accused of shoplifting and then was frisked, based only on his appearance. Coates then goes on to claim that the owner’s apology argued that the incident was a “‘sincere mistake’ and how the worker was a ‘decent man’ who was ‘just doing his job’ ”. (par. 3) In this quote, we are seeing an excuse trying to justify this event, for which Coates wants to believe the apology.…
The Meditator is alone, no trees, no people, no oceans, no mountains, no earth, no moon; just him and his isolation. In “Meditation Three”, Descartes goes much deeper than just his famous philosophical ideal — if “one can think one can be”(Descartes 19). He goes on to explain how there must be a God. He states that if there was not a God, people would have created themselves. If this were to be true, everyone would create themselves as perfect people. Descartes believes that there must be a God. God created humans and other humans and other objects to allow humans to think. This human ability to think allows them to exist. If nothing else were to exist and the Meditator was alone in the universe then he could not think and without thought,…
Descartes casts everything into doubt in the first meditation, including God Himself. He then comes to this disproval of this theory therefore concluding that God exists. This is brought about through the causal argument.…
God is the next doubt that Descartes brings to attention. He says that he is constantly deceived and God must have created him to be subject to this occasional deception. This doubt is quickly dispersed however when Descartes reasons that God is good and therefore would not deceive him because that would be contrary to his goodness.…
desire, views, precepts and vows, and to the doctrine of the self. Without attachment to these worldly things, and by following the Noble Eightfold Path, we can achieve nirvana. If this enlightened state of mind is not achieved by the end of life, we continue the cycle and are again reincarnated into a new body.…
What is truth? A simply complex question, truth is what we know, what we believe, or simply what is definite. I believe that we have personal truths that drive our beliefs, both of which are ever changing. In these changing truths, there is a common attribute: to further our truth is to strain our own being. For the betterment and continuity of human thought, we must undergo personal strains in the hope of going deeper into our changing beliefs. These strains are not all internal, for looking for truth is to subject ourselves to the possible maleficence of our own findings. The truth is a dangerous necessity.…
In conclusion, Descartes deduced that every science that is studied is based and rests upon the knowledge of the one true God. Descartes mentions that before becoming aware of God, he was unable to attain certain and true knowledge about anything else. Now that Descartes has proven, through his logic, about material things existing outside of thoughts and God’s existence, it is possible for him…