ipl-logo

René Descartes Argument Analysis

871 Words4 Pages

In Meditation Five of Meditations on First Philosophy, René Descartes makes his argument for a supreme being, which he refers to as “God.” Descartes creates his argument based on the two premises that 1) if a supreme being exists, then it must hold all perfections, and that 2) existence is a perfection. These two premises lead to the conclusion that a supreme being does indeed exist, and in response to this argument, I will provide a counterexample, as well as the response that Descartes would likely provide to this objection. To begin his argument, Descartes first leads readers into his line of thinking in order that they might understand the possibility of the existence of a supreme being. Throughout his argument, Descartes relies on …show more content…

He says, “This necessity plainly suffices so that afterwards, when I realize that existence is a perfection, I rightly conclude that a first and supreme being exists” (45). He also later goes on to say that “I cannot think of anything aside from God alone to whose essence existence belongs” (45). Being that he clearly and distinctly perceives that existence could belong to nothing other than a supreme being, and this being achieves all perfections, Descartes reaches the conclusion of his argument that a supreme being indeed …show more content…

I propose that existence does not fit this definition of a “perfection.” To provide an example, humans are beings who attain this supposed “perfection” of existence; however, for us, the idea of existing is not always positive. For humans, existence comes with various negative aspects such as sin, pain, suffering, sadness, and other unpleasant feelings or emotions that do not fit the term of “perfection.” Why, then, would a supposed “perfection” such as existence contain so many unpleasant and painful elements? Additionally, if, as Descartes claims, God also obtains this perfection of existence just like humans do, then is it possible that God can also experience pain and suffering? This contradicts Descartes’ argument that God is a supremely perfect

Show More
Related
378 Words | 2 Pages

The ontological argument states that perfection is a part of the concept of God, and that perfection entails existence, and so the concept of God entails God’s existence. However, it can be argued that if God is an infinite goodness, then its contrary, evil, should not exist. Alas, there is evil in the world, and, therefore, God cannot exist. The ontological argument also seeks to demonstrate that God exists on the basis of concept alone. Pascal’s Wager attempts to justify the belief in God with an

Read More
1238 Words | 5 Pages

Descarte will state that God is an example of absolute perfection, and because we have knowledge of absolute perfection, perfection must exist. Since we have knowledge of what perfection is. God as perfection therefore God must exist. Immanuel Kant’s basic response was this is nonsense, his ultimate goal was to confound all great illusions of metaphysics. This is a was a creation of an intellectual illusions.

Read More
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.

Read More
839 Words | 4 Pages

In talking to the Fool, Descartes must account for the Fool’s insistence that an infinitely perfect being is incomprehensible. Descartes characterizes everyone as having concepts of “perfections” (infinite quantities of goodness, knowledge, self-existence) all of which God must possess (Descartes 59). To use this premise, Descartes needs the Fool to admit that his mind contains the idea of infinity which is needed to understand perfection. However, the Fool should not have to admit to understanding the infinite and even if he did, there is no way to assure that the concept of the infinite is truly

Read More
346 Words | 2 Pages

The two arguments that will be compared will between Descartes two different proofs for God’s existence. One in which he argues or explains how God has no imperfections meaning that he is perfect and how it ties into people. On another more confusing argument he argues about the distinction between two realities The first argument that he makes is the one he has in his third meditation in which he dismisses his existence to be able to go forth and prove God's existence. At first he goes on to say that “there must be at least as much reality in the efficient and total cause as in the effect of that cause,” or formal reality meaning that something can't come from nothing.

Read More
969 Words | 4 Pages

Since nothing can compare to God, the Deus Homo is the only relatively analogous solution. Saint Anselm’s presumption circulating the explanation of the Deus Homo is preferred over that of

Read More
239 Words | 1 Pages

Descartes in a way aims to proves that he exists by the fact that he is a thinking thing. From Descartes stand point, he thought that everything was an illusion and if it was an allusion he would not be able to think. He considered to be able to think as proof of existence. The ability to think can not just be some type of an illusion. Because Descartes had the idea of God, there must be a God to receive that idea from.

Read More
1919 Words | 8 Pages

This essay will now begin the task of laying out the objection to Descartes’

Read More
1280 Words | 6 Pages

Descartes thought of the idea of God in terms of the perfect being. Descartes support his claims by referring to the essence of the triangle that o claim the inexistence of the god is like a triangle does not possess three sides and the sum of three angles of the triangles does not equal to 180 degrees. Thomas Hobbes in against of Descartes proof of God's

Read More
572 Words | 3 Pages

The entire argument is predicated on various assumptions, such as the concepts of omnipotence and omniscience. The tension does not arise from God being all-powerful or all-knowing but in how God exercises those abilities. Nor does the tension arise from God being immanent but in the extent in which he is immanent. While others have attempted to provide an alternative way to solve the tension this article does not attempt to do so but rather accepts the current assumptions and evaluates the already pursued methods of solving the

Read More
1357 Words | 6 Pages

According to passages in the Bacchae and Discourse on Method, it cannot. As I mentioned in my introduction, Descartes talks about an idea of a being more superior to himself who he names as God. Because he knows he is imperfect, he deduces that the idea of perfection was, “…put in my mind by a nature that was really more perfect than I was, which had all the perfections that I could imagine, and which was, in a word, God (22).” If God is perfect, than why would he have imparted such a flawed justice system? You could argue that He gave us a pure idea of justice to begin with, and our sinful minds corrupted it, but that contradicts Descartes’s logic.

Read More
884 Words | 4 Pages

Rene Descartes statement, “I think, therefore, I am” laid the foundation for his Cogito Argument in the Mediations. Throughout his groundwork we come to interpret that “I think, whatever thinks, must exists, so I exist, and whatever exists is a thing, so I exist as a

Read More
370 Words | 2 Pages

Addressing the problems with Descartes is not a very difficult task to undertake. Descartes theory of Epistemology has been the subject matter of countless responses and prolonged debate and has been historically rather resilient. The main problem with Descartes argument, however, is that it relies too heavily on immaterial assumptions. Descartes’s use of god as a main tenet which he bases his theory around provides too much room for criticism. Proving the existence of god is a herculean task which Descartes does an admirable job of proving, but through trying to prove his “ontological argument” he seems to make some illogical leaps in order to reach his conclusions.

Read More
1495 Words | 6 Pages

It is fair to refer to necessary existence as a perfection in its absence and causes a being to be less great than it would have been had it possessed such an attribute. So if existence being perfection was replaced with necessary existence, then it can be said that by looking at the definition of ‘God’, then we know God

Read More
1725 Words | 7 Pages

God does not create everything to be perfect. If we would be perfect without sins, flaws, and problems then there would be no God, then we would be totally equal as God, and there would be no one higher and lower than us. There would be sinners, atheist, offenders in His own creation because simply He gave us free will. God allows evil to exist because of the free will. Humans is given their God-given freedom which is the free will, it is the power to make a decision of one individual instead of taking or having God to decide what to do.

Read More

More about René Descartes Argument Analysis

Related Topics

Open Document