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Analysis Of Descarte's God Argument

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1) This essay aims to firstly analyse and explain Descartes’s God argument in Meditations three, specifically on the idea that perfection precedes imperfection. Then I will introduce possible oppositions to his view and attempt to defend it from his position. Lastly, I will provide my own view pertaining to his argument.
Firstly, the idea of perfection here is an assumption of God’s trait that also relates to being infinite. In Descartes’s time, God is deemed to be omnipotent, omnibenevolent and omniscient. After the establishment of himself as a thinking being in the midst of systematic-doubt, Descartes relies primarily on reasoning as he uses mathematical and geometrical concepts of 2+2=4 and triangle to derive the idea of perfection where …show more content…

This is because critics may question the origins of God based on Descartes’s claim that perfection precedes imperfection and “something must come from something”. (Bennet 2004, 12) It is important to note that perfection in itself reaches a limit because it is incapable of improving further, thus when God possesses the sum of all possible perfections, it would mean that God does not have potential for anymore improvements. This presents a dilemma for Descartes because if God is already perfect, and perfection is viewed to be a form limit itself, then there must be no being who is more perfect than God himself. However, since everything has a cause, God must have origins as well. This means that God either comes from nothing or something. If God comes from nothing, it would mean that Descartes argument is inconsistent because he claimed to have a clear and distinct idea that something must come from something. Similarly, if God comes from something, then he must come from something that is either more perfect or less perfect. If God comes from a more perfect being, it would mean that God is not completely perfect. On the other hand, if God come from a less perfect being, it would mean that the idea of perfection precedes imperfection does not follow through. Either possibilities defeats Descartes’s God’s argument because it contradicts with the two ideas thereby undermining Descartes’s use of reason. This is because Descartes heavily emphasizes on reasoning and evidently use reasoning to formulate his two ideas of “something must come from something” (Bennet 2004, 12) and perfection precedes imperfection. Ultimately, if Descartes way of reasoning is unable to reconcile the two ideas that he has formulated, then it would be difficult for him to prove God’s

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