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René Descartes Third Meditation: Proving The Existence Of God

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René Descartes wrote his series of six meditations with the intention of providing a theory that would lead to the truth. The third meditation consists of a summary of Descartes conclusions so far, he finds that he cannot have a firm foundation for certainty without first proving whether or not God exists and if so, whether God is a deceiver or not. God is of main interest in the third meditation which will be assessed further to show his attempts to prove the existence of such a being. To begin with, Descartes third meditation revolves around the existence of God and of him challenging his beliefs of the existence of himself as a thinking thing. Essentially the main aim of the meditations is to provide metaphysical foundations for the sciences. Descartes sets the scene involving the existence of God in the first meditation, where he concludes that a greater being must exist. Therefore, the third meditation establishes the existence of God who is not a deceiver. The argument is later developed, whether or not Descartes’ arguments are successful is debateable. The third meditation, Descartes outlines his argument on defeating scepticism. This was done byh dismissing sense experience as it does not exist externally, but he does note that they do exist inside him which …show more content…

The ontological argument is noted, showing an a priori argument for God’s existence, dismisses evidence made with the senses but rather on analysis of idea of God. Descartes holds the view that God- as a supremely perfect being must exist, as it is part of God’s essence. If God did not exist, then he would not be a supreme perfection, which Descartes asserts is one of his distinct qualities. Thus, the argument here shows us that the idea of God necessarily must

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