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Descartes' "first meditation
Critical analysis on Descartes meditation 2
Descartes' "first meditation
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Rene Descartes was born in La Haye in France in March 31, 1596. He was a mathematician, an scientific thinker, and an meta-physician. Descartes was the first major philosopher in the modern era. His views about knowledge, certainty, and relationship between mind and body have been very influential. Being a devout Catholic, Descartes, undeniably believed in God. He believed that the existence of God could be proved via reason. In this paper I will discuss what Descartes provided as a proof for existence of God.
In 1640 Rene Descartes wrote collection of essays called: “Meditations on the First Philosophy: In Which the Existence of God and the Distinction Between Mind and Body are Demonstrated.” In the Third Meditation: “Of God: That He exists”,
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Descartes says that God being the most perfect being. He can prove Gods existence with the fact that God gave him the idea that he exists since there is no likely that he could have come up with this idea himself. As Descartes says, “Hence it is just as much of a contradiction to think of God (that is, a supremely perfect being) lacking existence (that is, lacking a perfection), as it is to think of a mountain without a valley” (Descartes 203). Rene Descartes compares God to a mountain and his existence to a valley. According to Descartes these two things, a mountain and a valley are indivisible, just as God and his existence are …show more content…
It is the fact that the God exists that determines his thinking. “It is not that my thought makes it so, or imposes any necessity on any thing; on the contrary, it is the necessity of the thing itself, namely the existence of God, which determines my thinking in this respect” (Descartes 203). Descartes has this idea that God exists because God has an existence and let him to have this idea of him existing. Therefore, it must be true that God exists. This “most perfect being” has given him the ability to make that thought.
In conclusion, Rene Descartes is successful in proving the existence of God. Over the centuries philosophers have tried to argue and prove the existence of God. Rene Descartes argued that the fact that we can talk about the supreme perfect being shows that he exists. Perfection and existence somehow go
In this paper, I will explain how Descartes uses the existence of himself to prove the existence of God. The “idea of God is in my mind” is based on “I think, therefore I am”, so there is a question arises: “do I derive my existence? Why, from myself, or from my parents, or from whatever other things there are that are less perfect than God. For nothing more perfect than God, or even as perfect as God, can be thought or imagined.” (Descartes 32, 48) Descartes investigates his reasons to show that he, his parents and other causes cannot cause the existence of himself.
In his Meditations, Rene Descartes attempts to uncover certain truths about existence. In his Third Meditation, he establishes his "special causal principle" (SCP). Descartes uses this principle to explore the origin of ideas, and to prove the existence of God. I agree that there is much logic to be found in the SCP, but I disagree with Descartes method of proving God's existence, and in this essay I will explain why. I will begin by explaining the SCP, and will then demonstrate how Descartes applies this principle to prove that God exists. I will then present my critique of the SCP, and expose the flaws in both of Descartes proofs with regards to the principle. A conclusion will then follow.
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.... ...
He argues that if he does not solve God’s existence, he will not be certain about anything else. Thus, Descartes says that he has an idea of God and, therefore, God exists. However, in order to be certain of His existence, Descartes provides proofs that will illustrate his reasoning. The four proofs include formal reality vs. objective reality, something can’t arise from nothing, Descartes cannot be the cause of himself, and therefore, the bigger cause is God. Now that Descartes knows God is real, he must solve another aspect, which is if God can be a deceiver.
Descartes begins his Second Mediation by stating that in the previous day during his “Project” he had been coming across much doubt “… ones that are too serious to be ignored.” But in results of this he ponders upon many questions like whether or not he himself his “something” and that if he is indeed thinking that he must be something. What is one person that can 't think? But a thing that can indeed think must be existing or else it would not be able to think. Even though he had previously convinced himself that nothing exists not even the Earth, the sky nor himself. But if he is having these thoughts of doubt he is saying that he must exist if he himself is able to think. He later states that there may be an almighty power above him and he may be the one deceiving him. But again he stumbles across the thought that he must exist in order to be deceived. So if there is someone above him that someone cannot deceive nothing. So if that almighty power is deceiving what Descartes believes is him then Descartes, Himself, does undoubtedly
after noting that he could be open to error, now by using it as a
Descartes second argument for proving God’s existence is very straightforward. He has four possibilities that created his existence. Through process of elimination he is left with God being his creator.
Firstly, Descartes talks about “proofs” of the existence of God, explained in his third and fifth meditation. Meaning, his proofs are shown by experiment to prove that God exists. He reinterprets Archimedes ' saying, “required only one fixed and immovable point to move the whole earth from its place, I can hope for great things if I can even find one small thing that is certain and unshakeable (Descartes 159).” That he could shift the entire earth
Rene Descartes was a French philosopher during the 17th century. Descartes wanted to prove without a doubt that he and everything around him existed and that he was not being deceived by some "evil demon"(des. Med. 3). Descartes believed that proving that there was a good god meant that he could trust his senses and know that he was alive. And not dreaming his whole life away.
Descartes argument for his existence came from the doubt he had about everything around him. This doubt was generated by the idea of an evil genius. Descartes invented the evil genius to be an all-powerful and all-deceitful being. By creating the possibility of an evil genius, Descartes found the doubt he needed in order to be able to doubt everything he once believed. The evil genius was able to deceive ...
In Three Dialogues Between Hylas and Philonous and Discourse on Method and Meditations on First Philosophy, philosophers George Berkeley and René Descartes use reasoning to prove the existence of God in order to debunk the arguments skeptics or atheists pose. While Berkeley and Descartes utilize on several of the same elements to build their argument, the method in which they use to draw the conclusion of God’s existence are completely different. Descartes argues that because one has the idea of a perfect, infinite being, that being, which is God therefore exists. In Three Dialogues Between Hylas and Philonous, Berkeley opposes the methodology of Descartes and asserts that God’s existence is not dependent on thought, but on the senses and
Descartes proof of the existence of God is derived from his establishment that something cannot come from nothing. Because God is a perfect being, the idea of God can be found from exploring the different notions of ideas. Descartes uses negation to come to the conclusion that ideas do not come from the world or imagination; because the world contains material objects, perfection does not exist.
Descartes is trying to prove that God, if Descartes correctly defines God as the being consisting of all possible perfections in a single entity, must exist. God cannot be otherwise envisioned or realized except for the fact of his existence.
Rene Descartes decision to shatter the molds of traditional thinking is still talked about today. He is regarded as an influential abstract thinker; and some of his main ideas are still talked about by philosophers all over the world. While he wrote the "Meditations", he secluded himself from the outside world for a length of time, basically tore up his conventional thinking; and tried to come to some conclusion as to what was actually true and existing. In order to show that the sciences rest on firm foundations and that these foundations lay in the mind and not the senses, Descartes must begin by bringing into doubt all the beliefs that come to him by the senses. This is done in the first of six different steps that he named "Meditations" because of the state of mind he was in while he was contemplating all these different ideas. His six meditations are "One:Concerning those things that can be called into doubt", "Two:Concerning the Nature of the Human mind: that it is better known than the Body", "Three: Concerning God, that he exists", "Four: Concerning the True and the False", "Five: Concerning the Essence of Material things, and again concerning God, that he exists" and finally "Six: Concerning the Existence of Material things, and the real distinction between Mind and Body". Although all of these meditations are relevant and necessary to understand the complete work as a whole, the focus of this paper will be the first meditation.
As Descartes attempts to separate himself from all prior knowledge, anything that can be even slightly doubted, Descartes labels it as false. This leads him to conclude that nothing is true. Since he could doubt everything, this rule allows him to reject anything that has even least amount of doubt. As a result of which, he comes about a simple truth; that he exists. Simply because he is capable of doubting, he therefore, exists.