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Descartes Arguments For God's Existence

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In Descartes’ third Meditation, Descartes aims to prove God’s existence. So far, he only knows a couple of things with certainty. He knows that he exists, because he knows that he is a thinking thing, and that he has ideas or sensations in his mind. Because he clearly and distinctly perceives that he is a thinking thing, he is certain of that fact. He wouldn’t be able to be certain unless all clear and distinct perceptions were certain, so it is in the first couple of paragraphs that Descartes concludes that whatever he perceives as clearly and distinctly must be true. Descartes sets aside his senses and his images of bodily things before commencing his argument for the existence of God. The third Meditation can be split up into three main points. Classification of Ideas
In order to prove God’s existence, Descartes concentrates on the thoughts …show more content…

Because these ideas are all equal, then that means that they have the same amount of formal reality. Formal reality is reality that objects and things have in this world, while objective reality is the reality of objects represented by ideas. Although, ideas may have the same formal reality, they do not have the same objective reality; objective reality differs among different ideas. There are ideas that have more objective reality than others. Descartes uses God as an example. He states that “the idea that gives me my idea of a supreme God, eternal, infinite, omniscient, omnipotent, and the creator of all things that exist apart from him, certainly has in it more objective reality than the ideas that represent finite substances.” (28) This means that the idea of God would have more objective reality than that of a car, and a car would have more objective reality than the color yellow, for example. So, Descartes comes to the understanding that infinite substances, like God, have more reality than finite substances, bodies and

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In addition, due to dreams mainly consisting of objects and events, Descartes believed that there is no reason to doubt general beliefs as much as physical objects as 3+2 still equals 5, and a square will always have four sides (14). As a result of this, Descartes concluded that there is a degree of truth in objects we sense as those concepts must have come from somewhere,

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Descartes then attempts to define what he is. He previously believed that he had a spirit and body, by methods for which he was fed, moved, could sense, absorb space, had a distinct area and think. Each one of those methods are thrown into uncertainty except thinking. Since he can think, he should exist. He thinks about whether he no longer exists once his reasoning comes to a halt.

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In his first proof, he comes up with two claims: formal reality and objective reality, and the second proof is based on various sources of ideas. Formal reality is the reality or the virtue of an existence. For instance, rock has a degree of formal reality since it exists. Descartes also makes three levels of formal reality: infinite, finite and mode. Only God has infinite formal reality due to his great power; humans and animals are finite level.

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Notre Dame ID: 902008117 In René Descartes ' Mediations on First Philosophy, Descartes abandons all previous notions or things that he holds to be true and attempts to reason through his beliefs to find the things that he can truly know without a doubt. In his first two meditations Descartes comes to the conclusion that all that he can truly know is that he exists, and that he is a thinking being. In his third meditation, Descartes concludes that he came to know his existence, and the fact that he is a thinking being, from his clear and distinct perception of these two facts. Descartes then argues that if his clear and distinct perception would turn out to be false, then his clear and distinct perception that he was a thinking being would not have been enough to make him certain of it (Blanchette).

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Descartes gave a few arguments that God exists and is real. Desocrates believed our idea of God is that God is a perfect being, he believed he is more perfect to exist than not to exist. Desocrates also believed that God is a infinite being. Descartes idea would be that God gave us this idea to type this paragraph about him so he must be real. When he thinks negative of an idea or thought he wonders if an evil demon plotted those thoughts.

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We know clear and distinct perceptions independently by God, and his existence provides us with a certainty we might not possess otherwise. However, another possible strategy would be to change Gods role in Descartes philosophy. Instead of seeing God as the validation of clear and distinct perceptions, rather see him as a safeguard against doubt. This strategy, however, is a problem since it re-constructs the Meditations – Philosophical work of Descartes –.This is because it would not be God, who is the ultimate foundation of knowledge, but the clear and distinct

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In Meditation 3, the Meditator is creating arguments about the existence of god. This is where Descartes explains different reasons/premises to why god exists. Throughout Meditation 3, Descartes goes back and forth with his arguments arguing one thing then creating a counter argument to it at while still focusing on the main thing which is does god exist. For those wondering whether god does really exist stay tuned into what Descartes says. The premises from the meditation that claim god doesn’t exist are weak and invalid, and fail to give enough evidence to support the thought that god does not exists, which would conclude that God does exist.

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Descartes ‘Dream Argument’ is the idea that as there is no way to tell one's dreams from one's waking experience, because they are phenomenologically identical (Meaning they have the same epistemological and cognitive value); senses cannot be trusted. Descartes arrives at this conclusion because he believes that he had often confused the dream world with the waking, as he dreams that, “that I am here in my dressing-gown, sitting by the fire” showing that one cannot trust knowledge gained through the senses if they are so easily deceived by dreams. In theory, one would be inclined to believe what Descartes presents, if one couldn’t verify the validity of an experience one would logically reject the things the experience relies on as a valid source of knowledge. However, one can tell when they are dreaming or not, hence Descartes has no ground to stand on in saying arguing this. Descartes explicitly states that there “are never any sure signs by means of which being awake can be distinguished from being asleep”.

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I read, Social Class and School Knowledge, by Jean Anyon, and it is safe to say I was amazed by the differences between schools in similar school districts because of the social class settings. I was the most shocked while reading the working-class section because of how the teachers viewed their roles in the schools. Many teachers in these schools don’t try too hard because it isn’t expected of them to get high achieving results anyways. This made my jaw drop because these teachers took this as an easy way out, even though they clearly have a four year degree from a university which most likely emphasized the importance of education and being a helping hand. It is just so sad because the students are asking for more, but their teachers are not providing it for them.

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For how he can be certain that 2+2= 4 and not 5, how can he know for sure that he is not being deceived into believing the answer to be 5 due to a demon. But even if an evil demon did indeed exist, in order to be misled, Descartes himself must exist. As there must be an “I”, that can be deceived. Conclusively, upon Descartes’ interpretations we can come to decipher that in order for someone to exist they must indeed be able to think, to exist as a thinking thing.

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Meditation is the introspective process that involves the mind turning back in and upon itself, removing itself from the material world and focusing its attention inward. Descartes employs meditation to detach the minds from external influences, to think and analyze philosophy from the original foundations. This brings us to Descartes First Meditation, with the introduction of the method of doubt, he presents his philosophical project and claims that in order to complete his project he needs to question the truth behind all his beliefs. He attempts to accomplish this impossible feat because as he’s aged he has realized the false foundations that he has held onto thus far and the ideas he’s built on them. To be able to tear down these beliefs,

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Summary: Descartes continues from his knowledge of his own existence to reason the existence of God, His benevolent nature, and the disparity between our knowledge and will. The argument Descartes presents to prove God’s existence is through a series of premises. He states that all ideas he perceives (of himself, corporeal things, and God) can be reduced to a cause for believing them. That is because each effect gets its reality from a cause, meaning that the cause must have reality to begin with.

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Why can’t Descartes be certain about mathematical beliefs like the belief that 2+2=4? The truth that 2 + 2 = 4 does not rely on any sensible experience but is grasped entirely in our minds regardless of whether we are dreaming or awake.

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In his philosophical thesis, of the ‘Mind-Body dualism’ Rene Descartes argues that the mind and the body are really distinct, one of the most deepest and long lasting legacies. Perhaps the strongest argument that Descartes gives for his claim is that the non extended thinking thing like the Mind cannot exist without the extended non thinking thing like the Body. Since they both are substances, and are completely different from each other. This paper will present his thesis in detail and also how his claim is critiqued by two of his successors concluding with a personal stand.

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The next step that Descartes uses in the second meditation is the existence of this Godly figure. He questions his own beliefs with that of the God, and argues that a mind should be capable of thinking for them to be of existence, “Is there not some God, or some other being by whatever name we call it, which puts these reflections into my mind? That is not necessary, for is it not possible that I am capable of producing them myself?” He then puts forward that for one to be deceived by this “evil demon” as he describes it, they have to exist to be deceived.

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