Rene Descartes's View on God

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Rene Descartes's View on God

In 1996, songwriter Joan Osborne performed a song called "One of Us" that was nominated for three Grammy Awards. What made this song so successful and interesting were the powerful lyrics that basically asked, "What if God were a human being?" As she was writing the lyrics to "One of Us," she was wondering about God and how the world would be different if God did exist in real life and not just a supernatural force. You may be asking yourself, "What does this have to do with the seventeenth century?" Well, in the seventeenth century, there was a man, named Rene Descartes, who was interested in God and wondered about His existence. After an unforgettable night in November 10, 1619, his interest in God became stronger, and had developed many views that concerned or were about God. When he expressed his investigations of applying inductive methods of science and mathematics to philosophy by the "Cogito ero sum" (I think, therefore I am), he started to argue the existence of God by saying that God and science could co-exist, since he proved that he existed.

Rene Descartes, a Catholic, had the benefit of an extensive classical education, which influenced him to become a great philosopher. When he was eight years old, "he was enrolled in the Jesuit school of La Fleche in Anjou, where he remained for eight years" ("Descartes"). There, he received instruction in mathematics, scholastic philosophy, and classical studies. Although he was planning on having a military career in the Netherlands, "his attention had already been attracted to the problems of mathematics and philosophy to which he was to devote the rest of his life" ("Descartes").

Descartes experienced an unfor...

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Descartes was an important philosopher in the seventeenth century and one of the reasons why was his view on God. Because of his knowledge and inspiration that November 10, he has been able to elaborate on philosophy. He had a mission to accomplish during his life, a mission to see the truth. He was able to accomplish this mission by seeking the truth of God, algebra and geometry, reasoning, and many other theories that have caused him to be called the father of modern philosophy.

Works Cited:

Descartes, Rene. The Philosophical Works of Descartes. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1911.

Vrooman, Jack Rochford. Rene Descartes. New York: G.P. Putman's Sons, 1970.

"Descartes, Rene." Funk & Wagnalls New Encyclopedia. New York: Funk & Wagnalls Inc.,1952.

"Rene Descartes." Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 13 July 1999.

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