René Descartes Third Meditation

René Descartes was a methodical and intelligent thinker, which is to be expected from the man who invented the Cartesian Plane that would eventually lead to the idea of Calculus. It is due to this measured approach that we get his Meditations on First Philosophy, and from his methodology on how to determine what is irrefutably true which Descartes calls a clear and distinct idea. In his first Meditation, Descartes determines that the only way to determine what is true is to first think nothing is true and work from there. Is it possible that the fundamentals of mathematics are false? Can two and three not be equal to five? To Descartes, this must be considered, and he deems that there is a possibility of an all-powerful being that is dedicated
How does such a drastic swing in beliefs occur? By Descartes reasoning, this occurs due to a very significant breakthrough in his thought process. This breakthrough is that of the existence of God. While before he admits that it is possible that god does not exist, he personally does not believe that, so he attributes the possibility of a deceiver to the powerful mind. In the third Meditation, he has concluded that God does truly exist. His reasoning is that no idea or substance can contain more intentional reality than its
This would mean that any ideas that are positioned within him cannot be from nothing, as he says “There cannot be an infinite regress” thus in order to have an idea of his deficiencies as something that is lacking from the perfect, the perfect idea must be from something which contains the perfect ideals. As he stated earlier, these concepts cannot spring from something that cannot contain them; thus, if he is to have come from his parents, who though loving are flawed creatures as all humans are, the idea must be from something greater. He believes that God left these ideas as a sort of artisanal trademark, thus that is the solution. If all men come from the creation of God, the vague ideas of infinity and perfection come from the source of God. Now that God is proven (by Descartes account), the issue of whether or not he is a deceiver is the key to determine if math is true or not. Descartes believes that if God is infinite and the manifestation of perfection, he cannot be a deceiver, as that would be a deficiency. If god is not a deceiver, the fundamentals of mathematics are not under scrutiny, and are thus held to be valid and true. Everything happens because of things that happen before it. There is something that must start everything and God can be that source. There must be an original action source. The unmoved