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Descartes Views On Meditation And The Existence Of God

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Descartes provides an excellent example in describing the existence of God. This conclusion serves as an extension to the first two meditations. It is not clear if the first two meditations were conceived in succession or were they were provided as a means to simply explain the end result. Obviously, the numbered steps give a linear succession impression but the argument loses credibility through perceived bias if concluded in any other order.

Meditation one focuses on the impact of external environment on everything that is believed; therefore every sense that collects information must be disregarded. Meditation one sums the doubts of everything (p.101) therefore Descartes realizes he must begin at the lowest step imaginable.

Meditation two concentrates on the conclusion that the mind is the key to removing the doubts and concluding that “I am a thing that thinks, which doubts, understands, conceives, affirms, wills, refuses, imagines and feels” (p.104). This brings the act of thinking as the one point that is indisputably independent of externalities; therefore “I exist”. The four conclusions in meditation two all revolve around the conceptualization of thinking and how it proves one’s existence. …show more content…

Descartes then distinguishes the difference between formal and objective reality. Formal reality correlates to the reality of an object when objective reality revolves around the reality that an idea represents of the same object. The most important factor of this revelation is that neither is greater than the other (p.109). Descartes then concludes that God exists because both realities are equal; (a) he exists through thinking as outlined in meditation two, (b) he has an idea of what God represents therefore God existing is

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