Descartes and God

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Descartes and God

Everywhere in this world there are debates on many things. Logic is often employed in order to understand and come to an agreement on these debated topics. One such topic, which is arguably the greatest topic of debate occurring in modern day, is the existence of God. Sure, many people believe in some sort of higher being, but how many of them try and use logic and rational thought to prove the existence of God. Many probably, however we will only look at one such person. Rene Descartes attempts to use his own logic to come up with the conclusion that a perfect being does exist and that being is in itself God in his book Meditations on First Philosophy. We must first look at the background of Descartes thought process in the first two meditations where he explores the existence of himself and the use of methodic doubt, in order to get a feel on his position of ideas. We must also look at the various problems with Descartes’ logic behind the existence of God to determine whether or not it is a workable and valid argument.

To gain a true understanding of Descartes and his logic process we must quickly examine his first two meditations. In these meditations he looks at the existence of himself and the use of methodic doubt. Descartes' meditations are created in pursuit of certainty meaning true knowledge. He cannot assume that what he has learned is necessarily true, because he is unsure of the accuracy of its initial source. In order to purge himself of all information that is possibly wrong, he subjects all he knows to methodic doubt. This results in a (theoretical) doubt of everything he knows. Anything, he reasons, that can sustain such serious doubt must be unquestionable truth, and knowledge can then b...

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..., even before he begins to doubt. Can they be preserved and used in his arguments? Even if they are logical, they must be doubted under Descartes own methodic doubt structure. Without them, he cannot prove the existence of God.

Therefore in the book Meditations of First Philosophy by Rene Descartes we cam look at his thought process in the first two meditations, where he looks at the existence of himself and the use of methodic doubt we can get a feel on his position of ideas. This then allows us to search out the various problems with Descartes reasoning for the existence of God. However, in conclusion to this argument I would like to make it clear that this is not saying that God does not exist, it is simply a critic on Descartes reasoning. Thusly and so, the debate continues in not only the philosophical but rest of the world on the topic of God’s existence.

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