Descartes Argument For The Existence Of God

Descartes’ concept of radical doubt refers to the method of systematically doubting all knowledge claims in order to determine which beliefs are certain and indubitable; by doubting all things, one can arrive at a foundation of certain knowledge. If anything admits of the slightest of doubt, Descartes will withhold his assent from it. Descartes is skeptical of things perceived through and by his senses, which can be deceived. Furthermore, he reasons that since the same thoughts that come to us when we are awake can also come to us when we are asleep, things that enter his mind are the illusion of his dreams. Descartes' belief in God was not based on this method of radical doubt, but rather on the idea that God is the source of all truth and

Cosmological arguments for the existence of God argue that a certain element of the universe has a cause that can only be explained by God as a creator. Descartes' idea of perfection requires a cause–and the origin of this conception of perfection can only be the result of a perfect being. He begins this argument by establishing the fact that he is not a perfect thing based on the fact that he doubts. He realizes that a perfect being would not doubt because to know is better than to doubt. To doubt is an imperfection and because he doubts, he is imperfect. This leads him to the realization that he has an idea of perfection, and he questions the source from which he conceptualizes a more perfect entity than himself. It could now have come from himself, because he is imperfect. Rather, this idea must have come from a perfect thing. “It thus remained that this idea had been placed in me by a nature truly more perfect than I was and that it even had within itself all the perfections of which I could have any idea, that is to say, to explain myself in a single word, that it was God.” He reasons that imperfect things like the light, the earth, or the sky can be delusions of his imperfect mind. The same cannot be true, however, of God because an imperfect mind cannot imagine a perfect thing. He

Descartes was fond of geometry and mathematics because he believed that it offered a reliable method for acquiring knowledge and certain truth. He considered geometry to be the ideal form of knowledge because it uses deductive reasoning based on self-evident axioms to deduce conclusions. He saw geometry as a model for all forms of knowledge, and he believed that by applying the same rigorous methods of deduction used in geometry, one could arrive at certain and indubitable truths about the world and about oneself. Descartes recalls the certainty with which geometric proofs are established. For example, geometers can be certain of the fact that a triangle’s angles add up to 180 degrees. However, Descartes states that there is nothing to assure him that a triangle actually exists in the world. “And, having noted that the great certitude that everyone attributes to these demonstrations is founded exclusively on the fact that they are plainly conceived, following the rule that I mentioned earlier, I also noted that there was nothing in them that assured me of the existence of their object.” A triangle’s angles adding up to 180 degrees is part of the essence of the triangle–it is a fundamental aspect. In a similar way, Descartes realized that existence is just as much an integral property of God as having angles that sum up to 180 degrees is of a triangle. Furthermore, not existing would