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.
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.
Anselm and Descartes both take for granted that their audience, Fool or otherwise, will accept the ideas foundational to the progression of their argument. Anselm needs his audience to accept the idea of “that than which nothing greater can be thought” and understand it (or at least claim to understand it). Descartes needs the reader to conceptualize an infinitely perfect being. In both Anselm and Descartes’ cases, the acceptance of the concept of the infinite is required for the persuasive strength of the argument as a whole. As the dialogue above suggests, there may be compelling reasons to reject the foundational assumptions used to prove God’s existence in these two cases.
Descartes assumed first that it was God, who deceived us, but with the conclusion that God is all-good, he instead conclude that an evil demon exist. This evil demon possess the same power to deceive us, which God also would possess. God is perfect. Since humans have the ability to think of a being more perfect then themselves, then this being must have planted the idea in our mind. With the knowledge now that God is existing, perfect and is a non-deceiver – due to him being all-good –, Descartes can now move on to explain why material objects
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.
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.
Therefore, Descartes argues that the mind and the body must be two logically distinct
In saying “I think, therefore I am”, Descartes is at the same time presupposing that there is actual thought processes going into stating that statement. However, it may actually not be the case. Consider this. A computer engineer has randomly and unintentionally invented a computer code that, when executed, would cause the computer to say, “I think, therefore I am”. If so, to whom should we ascribe existence to?
The truth about the existence of God has been an argument for years and yet we still have no real proof but these past few weeks we have learned about various “proofs” for the existence of God according to a few philosophers. One philosopher by the name of Descartes introduced us to an interesting idea about why he believes God must exist. Descartes begins by saying that he has an idea of God, a perfect being. So this idea must have came from somewhere. But he cannot be the cause of a perfect being because he
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.
He According to him, “every clear and distinct perception is surely something, and hence cannot come from nothing . . . it must necessarily have God for its author” (42). Descartes also offers some doubt into the belief that God exists, for he claims that, “I can attach existence to God, even though no God exists” (44). He raises the idea that his thoughts do not entail existence, however, he claims that existence is inseparable from God because he cannot think of God as anything other than existence. As a result, he concludes that, “the necessity of the thing itself, namely the existence of God, forces me to think this” (44).
In his analogy, God is the fire and heat source that radiates outward, and he is the subject that receives this warmth, and thus the idea of God cannot be “materially false” (31). If God has the power to bring Descartes into being, He could also bring in another man, or animal, or
According to Descartes, the only thing we can be certain of is that fact that we think, and with the ability to think, he has the knowledge of God’s existence and therefore the realization that material objects exist (Moore, Bruder 99). Descartes uses the example of the wax to demonstrate how the mind and our thoughts are more reliable than our body and senses. He argues that when the wax is both in liquid and state form, the qualities we perceive by our senses are different in both states, but by using our mind and judgment, it is still the same wax (Skirry). This indicates that the senses are not enough to understand everything around us because what we can be certain of is what is in our minds. Therefore, Descartes would assume that using
In the third meditation titled, Of God, that He Exists, Descartes purpose is to prove God is the cause of our ideas. He begins by assorting his thoughts into different kinds. There are three sources for ideas which can be innate, adventitious or invented by us. Descartes then tries to determine how does he know the things he is certain of. He concludes the knowledge of his existence are clear and distinct perceptions therefore they are certain (SparkNotes Editor).
Before making any decisions about the existence of God, you must first determine where this idea of God came from and what we mean by it. Descartes shares an idea that nothing can be interpreted as truly existing, until one knows for sure that it is so (). It is important to identify sources of information from which one receives knowledge about things around him/her. Sources of information may be inner or outer.
