Throughout the readings Leibniz does not directly state reasons as to why God is perfect and support it with dogmatism, but decides to play devil’s advocate. By first trying to poke holes in the theory of our Lord’s perfect he can go back and describes these holes as simply blind spots to man’s determination to find full perfection at all times. Therefore, it is by design that perfection is found intermediary throughout nature confirming the disciple of John’s idea of Logos. So we can grasp the concept of pieces of God without understanding its exactness. An example that Leibniz uses is the idea of infinity which is rather easy to understand yet we are not able to quantify the magnitude of a number associated with it. Thus the perfection of
“The word perfection cannot be defined into one person or one thing. Perfection can only be told or seen in a first person view. No one will genuinely think something or someone is as perfect as another person, it’s impossible to see eye to eye with something that is as powerful and subjective as perfection.” - Jordan van der neut, 2014
This paper is intended to explain and evaluate Descartes' proof for the existence of god in Meditation Three. It shall show the weaknesses in the proof, but also give credit to the strengths in his proof. It will give a background of what Descartes has already accepted as what he truly knows. The paper will also state Descartes two major points for the existence of God and why the points can easily be proven false. The paper will also show that if a God does exist that God can in fact be an evil deceiver. The paper will also show that the idea of a perfect being cannot be conceived by an imperfect being.
No matter how hard humans have tried to achieve perfection none could ever reach perfection. Perfection is the allusion made by the human mind. Perfection is described as “the quality or state of being perfect: freedom from flaws, having maturity, and the quality or state of being saintly”. (Merriam-Webster)
My thoughts on God are clear and distinct that he is existent. Descartes’ now has ‘rebuilt’ the world, solely because of his power and reasoning. Descartes’ is only able to use his power and reasoning because he knows God is a guarantor of his ideas and thoughts. As Descartes thinks about his own imperfections, it leads him to think about perfection, and how it has to come from something superior to him.... ...
First, Descartes contends that God’s perfection implies his immutability because a modification of his action would deny the perfection of the creation. Accordingly, Descartes says: ‘Thus, God imparted various motions to the parts of matter when he first created them, and he now preserves all this matter in the same way, and by the same process by which he originally created it’ (AT IXB, 62). The conservation of the initial conditions of the universe is possible because of God’s continual action on the universe. Finally, Descartes concludes this argument explaining that it is reasonable to think that God preserves the same quantity of motion in matter. Under these considerations, we can say that Descartes founds his physics on his metaphysical conception of God’s immutability, and it makes possible to universalize the laws of
Descartes stands with his position that God is perfection by saying “it is impossible that God should deceive me. For in every case of trickery or deception some imperfection is found… [and] the will to deceive is undoubtedly evidence of malice or weakness, and so cannot apply to God” (90). Through these words, Descartes explains that the natural light proves God’s perfect being because a deceiver is powerless and malevolent. God is not powerless and malevolent because he is not a deceiver. He has no imperfections. Therefore, the natural light proves his pure
After settling that God exists in his first few passages, Descartes adds that God is the perfect being. Due to the fact that he understands what a perfect being is, than God must be a sovereign being. Similar to his triangle theory that it is not a necessity to imagine a triangle. It is not a necessity to imagine a perfect being rather a thought that has run through our mind. The triangle as imagined and conceived has three sides and a hundred and eighty degree angles as always. It is imperative that these characteristics are always attributed to the triangle, likewise the attributes of a perfect being are placed on God.
... God alone remains; and, given the truth of the principle that whatever exists has a cause, it follows, Descartes declares, that God exists we must of necessity conclude from the fact alone that I exist, or that the idea of a supremely perfect – that is of God – is in me, that the proof of God’s existence is grounded in the highest evidence” Descartes concludes that God must be the cause of him, and that God innately implanted the idea of infinite perfection in him.
Next, in the fourth meditation, which leads into Descartes’ thoughts on himself in God’s view. It is important to compare the third meditation. A second point of view of not just an idea, but now Descartes himself. He asks why a perfect being such as God does not make a perfect being like Descartes himself. He questions why he is not perfect in that sense.
A significant aspect in Leibniz’s Monadology and Discourse on Metaphysics, is his conception of simple substance and interaction. Leibniz assigns the term Monad to all simple substances. Monads are beings without parts, for which “neither extension, nor shape, nor divisibility is possible” (M3). Monads can exist as determined, necessary, finite, or infinite beings. For Leibniz, God exists as the only one necessary and infinite Monad, who is the sole causer of the infinity many determined, independent and finite Monads in the universe, all of which are contingent on God for their existence (D14). Leibniz claimed that all created Monads “have within them a certain perfection; there is a kind of self sufficiency which makes them the source of their own internal actions” (M18). Some simple substances, however, are also endowed with the qualities of perception that is distinct and accompanied by memory; these types of Monads are called Souls, and example of which is the human mind (D12; M19). These finite Monads are considered independent, even though they are dependent on God, because each exists as a separate contained universe, which cannot interact with other finite Monads or the external world. Interaction, which is defined as a transposition of parts, or matter being exchanged and arranged, cannot occur between the consciousness of the Monad and the physical external world, because minds do not have parts with which to interact with the extended and divisible parts of body.
...rney. Since the philosophies of Descartes and Leibniz were built around this idea of an immaterial, indivisible God, the philosophy that followed seemed to many to be shaky and speculative by their own definition. But considering the time period and the pressure involved in philosophizing at all, we must admire and respect the great advancement in thinking that was prompted by these great men.
Leibniz believes we have sufficient reason to believe the source of everything is God. God's perfection can make all things possible. In addition, all things are a reflection of God and in this sense the Monad is a reflection of God's doing.
In “Essays on the Justice of God and the Freedom of Man in the Origin of Evil,” Leibniz argues that God in his supreme wisdom and connection to all existence can only have chosen to create the best world or universe possible because “if it were not the best among all possible worlds, God would not have produced any. (p.128)” In other words, given the many worlds that there may have been to choose from, if it was not the best possible then that world would ultimately not have been made at all. Further explanation by Leibniz follows that.” if the smallest evil that comes to pass in the world was missing in, it would no longer be this world (p.128).” Evil exists in our world not because God is cruel but that if evil did not exist then our world would not exist. Allowing evil was the best choice that God could make. Leibniz claims that God does not only perform acts of goodness but that he has a role in both the good and evil that occur in our world. God, “by permitting of sins” has enabled even “greater goods than such as occurred before sins” (p.130). The period following the entrance of a sin “has been, in effect, better than another sequence without sin. (p.130).”An example of this would be the case of the appearance of Jesus Christ who came to be through sin.
In John Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion he spends a great deal of time expounding his doctrine of God's Divine providence in all of creation. He explains not only how God continually governs the laws of nature, but also how God governs man's actions and intentions to bring about His own Divine Will. Calvin believes that God's providence is so encompassing in creation that even a man's own actions, in many ways, are decreed by God. Because of this belief there arises the question, "Does Calvin leave room for the free will of man?"
...ience true perfection. Since an ideal can never hold up to a reality, nothing can be truly perfect.