Ontology and God
* Descartes’ Proofs for God’s Existence * www.prshockley.org * In sum, 3 Arguments for God’s Existence are used by Descartes in Meditations:
1. The argument for the existence of God from the fact that I have an idea of Him (1st proof in Meditation 3).
2. The argument from my own existence. Here it is argued that a cause more perfect than myself must be assumed to explain my coming into being and my continued existence (2nd proof in Meditation 3).
3. The Ontological Argument for God’s Existence (3rd proof in Meditation 5). * I. Introduction: * Descartes’ Methodic doubt (Meditation 1) leads him down into the depths of skepticism by abstaining from any belief that is not entirely certain and indubitable. After he doubts sense perceptions, whether he is awake or dreaming (dream argument), and whether we can be sure of any belief in view of Evil Genie argument, withholding assent from (doubt) dubious, uncertain opinions, he finds him assenting to the one and only truth that cannot be doubted: he is thinking (Meditation 2). From there he offers an argument for God’s existence (Meditation 3). * The Third Meditation is difficult to understand because he uses scholastic terms: * Great Chain of Being, * Heirloom Theory of Causality; * Technical terms like Formal Reality, Objective reality, and Eminent. * B. Setting the Context for Proof: I’m a thinking thing. * At beginning of Third Meditation, using Methodic Doubt, he systematically examined all his beliefs and withheld any assent to any claim that can be doubted. * He came to the conclusion that the one thing that he can’t doubt is that the fact even though the evil genie may be seeking to deceive him, he could not deceive Descartes into thinking that he did not exist. Since Descartes is thinking, he knows that he is a thinking thing. * C. Setting the Context for Proof: Criterion of Certainty.
2. After asserting that he is able to lay down a general rule
1. The argument for the existence of God from the fact that I have an idea of Him (1st proof in Meditation 3).
2. The argument from my own existence. Here it is argued that a cause more perfect than myself must be assumed to explain my coming into being and my continued existence (2nd proof in Meditation 3).
3. The Ontological Argument for God’s Existence (3rd proof in Meditation 5). * I. Introduction: * Descartes’ Methodic doubt (Meditation 1) leads him down into the depths of skepticism by abstaining from any belief that is not entirely certain and indubitable. After he doubts sense perceptions, whether he is awake or dreaming (dream argument), and whether we can be sure of any belief in view of Evil Genie argument, withholding assent from (doubt) dubious, uncertain opinions, he finds him assenting to the one and only truth that cannot be doubted: he is thinking (Meditation 2). From there he offers an argument for God’s existence (Meditation 3). * The Third Meditation is difficult to understand because he uses scholastic terms: * Great Chain of Being, * Heirloom Theory of Causality; * Technical terms like Formal Reality, Objective reality, and Eminent. * B. Setting the Context for Proof: I’m a thinking thing. * At beginning of Third Meditation, using Methodic Doubt, he systematically examined all his beliefs and withheld any assent to any claim that can be doubted. * He came to the conclusion that the one thing that he can’t doubt is that the fact even though the evil genie may be seeking to deceive him, he could not deceive Descartes into thinking that he did not exist. Since Descartes is thinking, he knows that he is a thinking thing. * C. Setting the Context for Proof: Criterion of Certainty.
2. After asserting that he is able to lay down a general rule