1. Why is it important to Descartes to determine as early as possible whether God exists and is a deceiver?…
In the Second Meditation, he comes to the strong conclusion of the cogito. “As long as I am thinking, I cannot help but to exist.” This discovery gave Descartes grounds to search for other metaphysical truths. He then continues onto his Third Meditation where he attempts to prove the existence of God. The reason why Descartes sought to prove…
Descartes discovered his first indubitable truth is that he, himself, did exist. He used his methods of doubt to discount anything he thought he knew previously. He doubted everything his senses had told him because, according to Descartes, what he may have seen or heard might not necessarily be real. He also was not convinced that what he did in his waking life could have been while he was dreaming and, therefore, might also be false. By discarding everything based on the senses, mental imagery and by questioning the existence of God, he was able to start with a blank slate on which to prove his idea. His method of inquiry was knowledge based on certainty. Once he was satisfied that it was certain beyond any doubt, he came to his first indubitable truth, that he existed.…
The fact that Descartes is even considering the mere question of his own existence just proves that he indeed exists and that is certain. Further, he argues that we are essentially thinking things (res cogitans) that can know our minds clearly and distinctly. Descartes pitches a tent for himself firmly in the rationalist camp, as opposed to the empiricist camp. He constantly emphasizes that the clear and distinct perceptions of the intellect are the only sure means of securing knowledge, and ultimately concludes that the senses are not designed to give us knowledge at all, but are rather meant to help us move through the world in a very practical…
"Give a detailed account of Descartes ' systematic doubt or methodical doubt in Meditation 1, making it certain that you distinguish between real doubts and so called hypothetical/metaphysical doubts. Then, explain in detail, exactly how Descartes dispels each and every one of these doubts during the course of the subsequent Meditations beginning with the cogito. Do you think that Descartes has been completely successful? Explain."The main goal of Descartes in Meditations on First Philosophy was to find truth behind all of his beliefs in order to build a solid foundation of certainty, and to focus his beliefs strictly on his idea of certainty; essentially to question knowledge. Descartes beliefs are mainly based on the theory that, if someone thinks that they really know something, they must be correct. Descartes meditations bring…
In Meditation one, Descartes initially writes about a blanket of ignorance that he feels he’s been trapped under for his entire life up until this point. He says “I had accepted, even from my youth, many false opinions for true.” With this statement, Descartes decides to do a spring cleaning of sorts of all his beliefs that he has reason to doubt. He makes a point to mention though, that not all of his beliefs are false or able to be refuted.…
Descartes uses the entire third and most of the fifth meditations of Meditations on First Philosophy to delve into his idea of and explanation of existence of God. From his point of view of skepticism earlier in the meditations, Descartes examined the possible existence of God as a supreme “evil demon” bent on deceiving humanity and causing mankind to err. Descartes drifts away from this idea and defines his idea of God as “eternal, infinite, omniscient, omnipotent, and the creator of all things” (178). Descartes then uses several different premises…
Firstly, Descartes in the third meditation sets out to prove that God does indeed exist. To begin with, he considered that the source of an idea must be as real as the idea itself. He thought that since his idea of God had overwhelmingly unlimited content, then the one who caused the idea must be infinite and that it must be god, and thus asserted that what is more perfect cannot arise from what is imperfect. In his conclusion, Descartes says that God is a substance that is omnipotent, omniscient, independent and infinite. He argued that if the objective reality of an idea could not come from him, then it could have come from something else. The basis for the arguments he put forward lies in the…
By establishing the existence of God, Descartes enables himself to argue that any idea that is clear and distinct to us is innate and completely trustworthy (36). It seems that Descartes’ argument for the existence of God is a replica of his argument for his own existence: I have an idea of myself; therefore, I exist; and, I have an idea of God; therefore, God exists. One might wish to resist the argument because, as Nagel points out, the way that Descartes goes about arguing, starting from the idea of God to the existence of God, implies that the idea of perfection cannot be caused by a less-than-perfect source (36). This is what is known as the causal principle, and as Nagel mentions, it is an appeal that many readers do not find completely convincing…
Descartes also states that this argument isn’t strong enough to prove that God exists. Because he has been constantly revising his believes he says that at this point he can easily tell the difference between essence and existence. After he points that out he explains that he believes that God could be separated from the existence but not from his essence. Then he contradicts himself saying that not existing would be prove of him not being perfect thus he had to exist. After that Descartes starts lacking of confidence that God exists. He thinks that he is giving some attributions, being perfect; to a creature that he doesn’t even know if exists. He thinks that he is just matching two things that he knows to make something new, something that…
Micaela Ceraso PHIL 101 Professor Papa December 9th 2014 Topic 3: The Certainty that God Is After reading the two paragraphs written by scholars I have come to three different conclusions. The author of the first argument claims that God does in fact exist and he is also infinite. The author of the second argument claims that humans are not capable of comprehending the idea of infinite, therefore we cannot argue that God is infinite or that he exists at all. Finally, Descartes claims that by The Method of Doubt, God is the one idea that cannot be doubted. Therefore, the disputed question in these three arguments is the existence of God and the idea of infinite.…
Descartes’ first meditation, his main objective is to present three skeptical arguments to bring doubt upon what he considers his basic beliefs. Descartes believes this to be an intricate part of his complete epistemological argument. Descartes skeptical arguments are not intended to be a denial of his basic beliefs. On the contrary, he uses these arguments to help prove one of his main theses, which is the existence of God. One of the main premises that Descartes uses in his proof for the existence of God comes from the evil demon argument, which he proposed, in the first meditation. It is this evil demon argument, which will be the topic of the following discussion.…
Descartes argument for the existence of God is based on two main principles. This is the principle of sufficient reasoning and the principle of adequate reality. The principle of sufficient reasoning means that everything has a cause. The principle of adequate reality is followed by sufficient reasoning and means that there must be at least as much reality in the cause as the effect.…
The most important part of Descartes’ knowledge was that he understood that God should not be to blame for the mistakes that we make in our lives. According to Descartes’, God has a plan for us, but he gave us freewill so that we have the ability to do whatever it is that we want to do. However, this can be a disadvantage to us at times because, unlike God, we don’t understand everything and make mistakes. Descartes knows that God would not deceive him, because Descartes defines that will to deceive as a sign of weakness, and God’s perfection would not allow him to be weak or act maliciously towards another. He also believes that if God created him, then God is responsible for him, which means that Descartes’ judgment would be perfect if only he used it correctly.…
I am skeptical as to whether Descartes' believes in God and in his own reasons for saying God exists. I have first taken into consideration the fact that during this time and place it was highly frowned upon to disagree with the church and one can be put to death for this. When reading Descartes biography it stated that he pulled his material off from publication when he received word of Galileo's trial in Rome. Having this information it seems to me that there must have been some information that Descartes feared he would be put to death for. I believe this information was his reasoning that a God does…