Descartes Existence Of God Analysis

In this paper, I present my own interpretation of how Descartes, in his Meditations (1), tries to answer the question whether it is possible to build firm foundations for indubitable knowledge. The kind of knowledge he seeks is one we can achieve without doubt. In Descartes’ epistemology, we can claim to know something certainly only if there is no possible doubt for our proposition. The proof of the existence of God as an ultimately perfect and benevolent being is central to achieving this certainty. I will first present his foundationalist view and his general methodology. Then, I will focus on and interpret his proof of the existence of God as a benevolent and ultimately perfect being. I will also interpret some of the obstacles involved

For apple is not something that contains greater reality than him, the cogito, he might be the originator of this idea regardless of its actual existence as represented in his mind. However, the idea of God as an ultimate being has many qualities in his mind, such as omniscience, omnipotence, infinity, and being the creator of everything. Considering God’s qualities, we can say that they have more representative reality than anything else including Descartes. Then, how could the idea of God in his mind be explained when we consider the principle that something must come from a cause with at least the same level of reality? In other words, how does Descartes have in his mind the idea of God as an ultimately perfect mean if he is a being less perfect than God? Descartes answers this question by elaborating on his cause and effect principle. The reality of an idea x must be caused by an idea y, which has at least as much intrinsic reality as does the idea x, either representative or intrinsic. Another objection in Descartes’ mind is that some idea can get its representative reality from some other idea. For instance, the idea of fruit may get its reality from the idea of a plant. However, he argues that there cannot be an infinite regress of such ideas. There has to be a sort of first cause. In his third meditation, Descartes says this cause must be a sort of archetype, which contains all the reality and perfection representatively contained in that idea (12).The idea of God, as an ultimately perfect being, must have been placed in his mind by someone else. Therefore, Descartes is now sure that he is not alone in this