Descartes Discourse On Method And Third Meditations Of First Philosophy

One of Descartes important discoveries is that he considers himself as a thinking thing. He makes this discovery thanks to mathematics and his critical thinking skills. Since he was talented and made a great contribution in mathematics, Descartes was able to come up with own logical theories and techniques. According to Descartes philosophy, ideas are what connect the mind to the world because there are two types of reality contained in them. He calls them objective and formal reality. On the other hand, Descartes introduces his first proof of Gods existence in the Third Meditation. This particular proof is based on his “Causal Adequacy Principle” regarding cause and effect. (Brecher, pg417) Descartes decides to look around for more of these
He states, “But that I may be able to remove it the idea of an evil demon deceiving me I must inquire whether there is a God.” (Descartes, Meditation Three 70) One of the two arguments that Descartes gives in the book “Discourse on Method and Meditations of First Philosophy”, is also a version of the Ontological argument. The second argument is the distinction between two sorts of reality. According to Descartes description “formal reality is the reality has in virtue of existing” (Brecher, pg417) Descartes later introduces different proofs of the existence of god. Thus, one of his proofs of god existence maybe considered as his ontological argument. His second argument seems to be more convincing because it shows how god can be perfect creator despite creating imperfect
He describes formal reality as “the actual reality contained in the thing or the reality that the thing has in the world” (Brecher, 417). On the other hand, objective reality which is the reality that the idea of the thing represents. Ontological argument maybe considered as a logical fallacy. This argument means that Descartes is saying that “some properties existence has the same properties as others” (Brecher, 418). Descartes doesn’t distinguish existence from other properties. In addition, in one of his proofs, Descartes forgets to distinguish reality from perfection. His notion of degree of reality is thus dependent upon his doctrine of clear and distinct perceptions.” (Brecher, 418) Descartes wants us to assume that we all know god and his existence we all have different views or innate ideas of god as a being of infinite perfection. Descartes first proof introduces some kind of principle, which says that no effect can exist without a cause. He also give two types of reality and uses an apple to represent this principle. His principle explanation says that “in order for an idea to be caused, the caused must have as much formal reality as the idea has objective reality” (Brecher, 418). The main difference between Descartes two proofs of god existence is that his first proof relies on logical reasoning. Descartes explains his first proof in regarding the relationship between