Preview

Rene Descartes's Argument Regarding The Existence Of God

Powerful Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1952 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Rene Descartes's Argument Regarding The Existence Of God
Rene Descartes’s Meditations Descartes, in his third Meditation, conveys a powerful argument regarding the existence of God. The first concept that he outlines is that since every idea must be caused, and if he has an idea that he isn’t the cause of, then something other than him must exist. The next step of Descartes’s argument states that all ideas of material reality could have only originated within him, but the idea of God, a perpetual and flawless being could not have originated from Descartes since he himself isn’t perpetual and flawless like God. Furthermore, he goes on to state that the idea of God, could indeed only have spurred by God and not a human and therefore god exists. These points are the basis of Descartes’s argument that God indeed does exist. …show more content…
Descartes then brings upon the point that extraneous forces bring upon ideas, and usually these ideas do not depend upon his will. He points to these extraneous thoughts that enable him to understand God; who is eternal, infinite, omniscient, omnipotent, and the creator of all things other than himself; and has more objective reality within it than do the finite substances which Descartes describes as things generally on Earth, especially us humans since nothing is
Continue Reading
View Writing Issues

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    Hum112 Assignment 1:Essay
    • 289 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Hum112 Assignment 1:Essay

    In Discourse on Method by René Descartes, the author starts by expressing his methodology and thought process in the effort to determine his own existence. While the topic of this piece starts by focusing on Descartes and the truth he was searching for about his existence, it quickly turns to the topic of the truth or existence of something more perfect than himself. That more perfect example being God.…

    • 289 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Epistemology Phil/201 Quiz
    • 1075 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Epistemology Phil/201 Quiz

    | Descartes deduced God from the concept of God itself, in order to justify the idea of the material world.…

    • 1075 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Examine the Key Concepts of the Ontological Argument for the Existence of God
    • 455 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Examine the Key Concepts of the Ontological Argument for the Existence of God

    Descartes later reformulated the ontological argument, who sought to prove the existence of God through reason alone. He stated that he exists, and in his mind he has the concept of a perfect being, and as an imperfect being, he could not have conjured up the idea of a perfect being, therefore this idea must have originated from the perfect being itself, and this perfect being must exist in order to be perfect, consequently a perfect being exists. He also stated that the idea of God is the idea of a perfect being, and a supremely perfect being has all perfections, existence is perfection, a supremely perfect being must have existence, therefore it is impossible to think of God as not existing, hence God exists.…

    • 455 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Cartesian Dualism Flaws
    • 1061 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Cartesian Dualism Flaws

    Descartes thinks that since we all have an innate idea of a perfect being, then that perfect being, which he calls God, has to exist, or else it would not be perfect anymore. There are two problems with this line of thought. First, do we really have an innate idea of a perfect being? Wouldn’t we need to acquire the concept of “perfect” and “being” first? It is true that we could not have directly seen or experienced a perfect being in real life, but that does not mean the idea of a perfect being has to be innate. Rather, we can form this idea merely by experiencing non-perfect beings and imagining the opposite, just like how we develop the idea of immaterial things after we have seen or experienced material things. Therefore, the idea of a perfect being is not innate, and in fact, it is possible for us never to have that idea at all. On the other hand, why must a perfect being exist? Why should existence be better, “more perfect,” than non-existence? Descartes does not give us enough evidence of the “perfectness” of existence, and thus existence cannot be guaranteed as an essential part of the perfect being’s property. Now I have shown that Descartes’ main argument for God’s existence is flawed, although I still do not rule out the possibility of God’s…

    • 1061 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    Why Was God Important to Descartes?
    • 1278 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Why Was God Important to Descartes?

    This gives an insight into why Descartes relies so heavily on the God in his meditations. It seems he uses God to support his meditations and uses God as a solution to his philosophy of doubt. God is vital as he is the answer to Descartes’ most complex ideas on doubt and enables him to preach God’s ability to relieve us of doubt but further more he want to reveal to us that God is the reason for all matter , for our…

    • 1278 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Descartes Systematic Doubt In Meditations On First Philosophy
    • 3392 Words
    • 14 Pages

    Descartes Systematic Doubt In Meditations On First Philosophy

    In this sense, God is perfect, and would never allow deception and error to take place because they are imperfect and God consists only of perfect qualities. God would not allow one to be deceived because he is supremely good, therefore deception and error must be a result of another source. He says that if his origin is from something other than God, he could have easily created him so that he makes mistakes and until he finds his origin doubt is going to occue. Descartes supposes that God is just a tale so he says let us just fraction him out of the equation entirely. Descartes decides that he is just going to doubt everything based on two principles. The first being that everything should be doubted at some point by those who seek the truth and the second being that things that are considered doubtful should be treated as if they are false. With that in mind he concludes that he does exist even against all doubts because the Evil Genius can never say that Descartes is non-existent because he thinks he is something therefore he must be. I think, therefore I…

    • 3392 Words
    • 14 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Fourth Meditation Of Descartes Analysis
    • 739 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Fourth Meditation Of Descartes Analysis

    The essence of the main argument in the fourth Meditation of Descartes is to establish that there is a difference between God: his creator and himself, and how this difference does not taint the infinite abilities of God. Descartes commences his argument by first establishing his idea of being a thinking being. In his previous book, The Discourse on Method and Meditations on First Philosophy he sates,…

    • 739 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Explain how Descartes developed Anselm’s argument that God’s existence is necessary.
    • 872 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Explain how Descartes developed Anselm’s argument that God’s existence is necessary.

    Anselm used the Ontological Argument to prove that God’s existence is necessary. The origins of this argument are found in Anselm’s writings, he began with a quotation from a Psalm “The fool says in his heart, ‘there is no God’…” and then reflected on the truthfulness of this. Anselm defined God as ‘that than which nothing greater can be conceived’ assuming you accept this a priori definition Anselm went on to state that anyone who denies God’s existence is a fool. He observed that it is greater to exist in reality than in the mind alone (you would prefer to have a real £20 note than an imaginary one). Someone who doubts God’s existence must have a concept of God in order for them to be able to reject it therefore if the concept of God is the greatest conceivable being then he must exist. He argued that existence was part of perfection, so if God is the greatest being (with all perfections) then it is necessary that he exists otherwise he cannot be the greatest conceivable being and that is not – to Anselm – the definition of God, the very fact that we can conceive of him as the greatest being proves, for Anselm, that he exists. For Anselm someone who denies God’s existence is essentially saying “God, who exists, does not exist”.…

    • 872 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Descartes's Argument For The Existence Of God
    • 894 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Descartes's Argument For The Existence Of God

    According to this principle, the reality of the cause must be greater than or equal to the reality of the effect. The idea of God has infinite reality and, by theory, the only cause of this infinite idea can only be God. With all this said, the reality of God is the only plausible cause to the reality of the idea of God. Descartes gives another proof in Meditation Five where he has reasoned that a triangle must have all the properties he assigns to it, because the triangle exists as an idea in his mind and he clearly and distinctly perceives all these properties. He then reasons, by analogy, that God exists as an idea in his mind and he clearly and distinctly perceives all of his qualities. One of these qualities is existence, so it follows from his clear and distinct perception that God must exist. If existence is the essence of God, then God would not be God if he did not exist, just as a triangle would not be a triangle if it were not three-sided. At the very least, then, the existence of God must be as certain as the properties of mathematical and geometrical objects since he can prove them in the same way. Having concluded that God must necessarily exist, Descartes goes further and then asks how he received the idea of God. He could have not invented the idea. Therefore, the idea must be innate which, according to Descartes, means that God must have created him…

    • 894 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Descarte's causal argument
    • 723 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Descarte's causal argument

    Descartes casts everything into doubt in the first meditation, including God Himself. He then comes to this disproval of this theory therefore concluding that God exists. This is brought about through the causal argument.…

    • 723 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Descartes Argument For The Existence Of God
    • 193 Words
    • 1 Page

    Descartes Argument For The Existence Of God

    Descartes also states that this argument isn’t strong enough to prove that God exists. Because he has been constantly revising his believes he says that at this point he can easily tell the difference between essence and existence. After he points that out he explains that he believes that God could be separated from the existence but not from his essence. Then he contradicts himself saying that not existing would be prove of him not being perfect thus he had to exist. After that Descartes starts lacking of confidence that God exists. He thinks that he is giving some attributions, being perfect; to a creature that he doesn’t even know if exists. He thinks that he is just matching two things that he knows to make something new, something that…

    • 193 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Descartes Argument For The Existence Of God
    • 1259 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Descartes Argument For The Existence Of God

    In some measures, the reliability of our ideas may depend on the source from where they are derived from. Descartes states that there are only three places in which these ideas can come from. The ideas must enter the mind from the outside world, they must be manufactured in the mind itself, or God must have inscribed these ideas into our heads. Descartes concludes that the only possible reasoning would be that God has placed these ideas into our head. As proven earlier, the idea of God could not enter one’s mind though the outside world, on earth, there is no real proof that shows that God in fact…

    • 1259 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Descartes Argument For The Existence Of God
    • 1162 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Descartes Argument For The Existence Of God

    He simply states that the idea in his mind must be true because of his rule on adequate reality. It seems like Descartes proved that God exists through the understanding of himself existing. It doesn’t make sense to only compare your own existence to the existence of God. He doesn’t have too many other arguments on how or why God might exist. I think I might have agreed with his argument if he added more detail and clarity to his reasoning’s.…

    • 1162 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Descartes Beliefs
    • 692 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Descartes Beliefs

    As Descartes continued to ponder his beliefs he began to examine his beliefs about God and whether those could be trusted or not. He had to question whether or not his beliefs could be relied upon or if God was actually deceiving him or if God is even a real thing. However, Descartes concludes that God does in fact exist and “God has never owed me anything, so I should thank him for his great generosity to me, rather than feeling cheated because he did not give me everything” Descartes also comes to the realization that God understands everything there could possibly be to know. As he continues in his mediations, he also states that even though God knows everything and we do not, we should not blame him for our flawed beliefs and the many misconceptions…

    • 692 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Descartes: Proofs of God/Deception and Error
    • 1107 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Descartes: Proofs of God/Deception and Error

    Firstly, Descartes in the third meditation sets out to prove that God does indeed exist. To begin with, he considered that the source of an idea must be as real as the idea itself. He thought that since his idea of God had overwhelmingly unlimited content, then the one who caused the idea must be infinite and that it must be god, and thus asserted that what is more perfect cannot arise from what is imperfect. In his conclusion, Descartes says that God is a substance that is omnipotent, omniscient, independent and infinite. He argued that if the objective reality of an idea could not come from him, then it could have come from something else. The basis for the arguments he put forward lies in the…

    • 1107 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More

Related Topics