Descartes Ontological Argument

Descartes was a foundationalist. His goal was to find certain indubitable ideas to use as a foundation to build his thoughts. His aim was to find a single or multiple certainties to build his thoughts off of. Descartes figures that if he can come up with a hyperbolic doubt and some idea can still survive through this ultimate doubt then this is the most certain scenario. This hyperbolic doubt becomes to believe is, “ not that there is a supremely good God who is the source of all truth, but that there is an evil demon supremely powerful and cunning, who works as hard as he can to deceive me” (Descartes 159). In Meditation III of his Meditations, Descartes aim to prove that this assumption is not true. By proving God, Descarte proves that
Descartes starts his second proof for God by looking at the properties of a triangle. By definition a triangle is something with three sides. This cannot be denied about a triangle since it is the definition. But there are certain properties that hold true for all triangle that will also alway hold true for triangles that are not derived from its definition. For example, sin of an angle will always be equal to the opposite side of the angle divided by the hypotenuse of the right triangle. This will be true for all right triangles and the property cannot be separated from the triangle itself. These properties that considered true ideas. True ideas are properties that cannot be separated from the object and do not come from the definition of the
If any other being is more perfect than they are by definition God. Thus the most perfect being will always be God. Most people would agree that the idea of a magical machine of endless food would be better than just imagining this machine. Due to this, Descartes then claims that something that exists is better than sometime that does not exist. In regards to this, existence in itself is a perfection. Since God by definition must hold all perfections by definition, it must also hold the perfection of existing. Thus God must exist. Descartes finds that God’s properties work very similarly to a triangle’s as he says, “it is clear that i can no more separate God’s existence from His essence that I can separate the essence of the triangle from its angles equaling two right angles…”(Descartes 173). Just like a triangle’s properties are inseparable from the triangle, God’s existence is a property that is inseparable from God. Thus God must