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Descartes Meditation 1 Analysis

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Descartes attempts to prove the existence of God through his six meditations. He first determines that the knowledge that humans have is based on too many unproven assumptions. This makes it difficult to distinguish between truth and falsities because many things go so far back in history that we have no actual proof of them . He explains that knowledge must be based upon universal doubt. Descartes says before knowing if anything is true you must first consider then all to be false, until they are actually proven guilty. Therefore,the would mean you would have to consider the thought of God to be false until you prove other wise. Descartes believes that the idea of God cannot be originated by himself so, God must be the cause of this …show more content…

He must know his own mind first before he can establish all the other things he knows. Then in Meditation 5, Descartes claims to know God clearly and distinctly also and this is a problem. If God is an infinite and perfect idea then God’s existence cannot be dependent upon a person knowing his or her own mind first. . Descartes then catches himself in puzzlement and basically says well the idea of God must be prior to my idea of myself. This means the idea of God was always there waiting for him to realize …show more content…

His theory of the existence of God refutes his conclusion that God is real. Descartes says God is as an infinitely good being. To say this he would have to be comparing God to his own imperfection so that idea would have to be created in his own mind. Also, Descartes principle of universal doubt says he cannot simply know whether his conception of God is correct or incorrect. He would first have, as a matter of his own principle, considered this conception as false until it is proven otherwise. Descartes tries to argue that we can only be sure of our clear and distinct perceptions if God exists and we can only know that God exist because we clearly and distinctly perceive the idea of God. If these are both true Descartes is guilty of circular reasoning. Therefore, Descartes cannot escape his own principle of doubt and he also is guilty of circular

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