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Did Rene Descartes God Exist

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René Descartes, a famed mathematician and philosopher, enacted a thought project where he applied radical doubt to everything in existence, including himself. He wrote a treatise about the experience, called “Meditations on First Philosophy”, of which there are six parts. After first establishing his own existence as a “thinking thing,” Descartes wonders about the existence of God (153). Descartes then follows to prove, through a series of arguments, that God exists, and that the existence of God merits the existence of a material world. Early in the Meditations, Descartes inquires as to whether God might be an ‘evil genius’ of sorts, manipulating his thoughts and perceptions, or even falsely planting them, and assumes that this is the case saying that God is …show more content…

The principle of sufficient reason, or the “natural light” as Descartes commonly calls it, states that, in terms of existence, causation is always superior or wholly equal to its effect (159). Or, in relation to Descartes and God, since Descartes considers himself to exist, then that which created him must be at least as real as he, if not more so. Descartes establishes the assumption that God created him, and by this principle God must exist. He also considers the existence of God to be necessary, as he would not have formed ideas of something infinite and omnipotent based upon knowing only himself, since, by nature, he is finite and limited in knowledge. Descartes employs an ontological argument to further prove that God exists. Ontological arguments are arguments where two things are necessarily connected to one another if the second cannot be thought of without the first also necessarily being thought of. In his argument, Descartes says that if there is a god, then he would have all possible perfections. If existence is a perfection, then God must exist, since existence is included as a perfection that he

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An Analysis Of René Descartes Mediations On First Philosophy

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However, Descartes is indeed certain of the fact that he is a thinking being, and that he exists. As a result of this argument, Descartes makes a conclusion that the things he perceives clearly and distinctly cannot be false, and are therefore true (Blanchette). This clear and distinct perception is an important component to the argument that Descartes makes in his fifth meditation for the existence of God. This paper explains Descartes ' proof of God 's existence from Descartes ' fifth meditation, Pierre Gassendi 's objection to this proof, and then offers the paper 's author 's opinion on both the proof and objection.

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Rene Descartes Cosmological Argument

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Throughout the Meditations, Descartes tries to prove the existence of God while rebuilding the knowledge that he recently casted much doubt over. He uses the cosmological argument to provide the proof needed to show Gods existence through arguing his own imperfections and Gods perfections. The main concepts within this argument stem from his overall point that something can’t come from nothing, and that God is the perfect being. Descartes begins his cosmological argument by admitting he is an imperfect individual.

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How Did Descartes Confirm God's Existence

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To some degree, I believe that Descartes did confirm God’s existence, when one takes into consideration of the arguments that were presented and the limitations that were placed on the Meditator. For instance, when the Meditator was attempting to prove God’s existence by demonstrating that God does not depend on the existence of a substance, considering that God holds perfection in sovereignty and knowledge, which the idea of God could not be invented by the imagination or brought from the material world. This type of analysis was centered on the Meditator’s intellectual judgement, so that the Meditator could attain a clear and distinct idea of God by relying on the mind alone, since the Meditator understands that adventitious and factitious

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How Does Descartes Argument That God Exist

127 Words | 1 Pages

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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Descartes Non Deceive God Analysis

726 Words | 3 Pages

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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753 Words | 4 Pages

The argument for God’s existence is that God is a perfect being, he is infinite, independent, supremely intelligent, and supremely powerful. Descartes goes on to talk about how God exists because he can conceive of him as better than himself (AD 40). God is perfect and perfect at everything, and was the first thing that sent everything into motion (AD 45). God is the ultimate cause.

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Descartes defined God as a supremely perfect being, meaning that he contains all supreme perfections. Descartes argued that it is more perfect to exist than to not exist, therefore existence is one of God's supreme perfections and God must exist. ' God exists' must be true by definition because the subject (God) already contains the predicate (exists). Descartes also believed that God is a necessary being meaning that it is impossible to imagine him as not existing because it is part of his essence as a supremely perfect being, concluding therefore that God must exist.

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962 Words | 4 Pages

In Second Meditation, Descartes claims, after radical doubt, that the only undeniable truth is his own existence because he must exist to think about his existence. His argument is compelling, but for one problem. In this paper, I shall argue that Descartes’ argument that his “thinking” (Descartes, 153) is proof of his existence is flawed because he establishes no premise to claim ownership of this thinking. I will also claim that even if Descartes is creating his own thoughts, albeit a lack of appropriate proof, his argument still does not prove a causal relationship between thinking and existing. In passage B, Descartes examines the properties of a piece of wax to confirm his existence.

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Rene Descartes an academic, scientist, mathematician, and philosopher. Which landed him the title of the father of modern philosphy for defining doubt in everything us humans possibly take for granted, making us doubt in everything we may or may not know. I find this to be one of the biggest issues with one of Descartes main arugments is the fact he believes that the idea of God is impossible through anyone other cause than God, also that any being less than God is not worth of his divine nature, proving that the meditiator cannot be God since he is a thinking thing as my argument pertains aganist Descartes views of how God exists, because if we as humans are all thinking things, God is a nonbeing therefore he has no thoughts or causes to create such thoughts. Decartes reasoning being in this sense he is his god because saying I am gods creation and he gave me this idea because he is my maker, almost like God is creating a trade mark.

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295 Words | 2 Pages

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Rene Descartes Argument

1630 Words | 7 Pages

Descartes’ first argument for the existence of God In meditations of the first philosophy, Descartes reflects that he is often deceived by his senses. He therefore decides to discard all his pre-conceived notions and start from scratch to find out things that he is absolutely certain about. Descartes begins by showing that he is certain about only one thing, which is that he exists as a thinking thing. The fact that he can doubt his own existence goes on to show that he exists and that he is a thinking thing capable of doubting, imagining, willing etc.

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1036 Words | 5 Pages

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1194 Words | 5 Pages

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1159 Words | 5 Pages

Since time immemorial, man has constantly tried to prove the existence of God, to no avail. From one philosopher to another, the proof for the existence of God has proven to be elusive and mythological. Rene Descartes was one such philosopher who was not satisfied with mere “faith.” In the Meditations, René Descartes discusses what he knows about the world, beginning with what he knows for certain, which leads to what can be doubted and also what causes the doubt. In order to prove these ideas he must establish a foundation for these ideas, which is the existence of God.

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