Rene Descartes' third meditation from his book Meditations on First Philosophy, examines Descartes' arguments for the existence of God.The purpose of this essay will be to explore Descartes' reasoning and proofs of God's existence. In the third meditation, Descartes states two arguments attempting to prove God's existence, the Trademark argument and the traditional Cosmological argument. Although his arguments are strong and relatively truthful, they do no prove the existence of God.
At the start of the meditation,Descartes begins by rejecting all his beliefs, so that he would not be deceived by any misconceptions from reaching the truth. Descartes acknowledges himself as, "a thing that thinks: that is, a thing that doubts, affirms, denies, understands a few things, is ignorant of many things" He is certain that that he thinks and exists because his knowledge and ideas are both ?clear and distinct'.Descartes proposes a general rule, "that whatever one perceives very clearly and very distinctly is true" Descartes discovers, "that he can doubt what he clearly and distinctly perceives is true led to the realization that his first immediate priority should be to remove the doubt" because, "no organized body of knowledge is possible unless the doubt is removed" The best probable way to remove the doubt is prove that God exists, that he is not a deceiver and "will always guarantee that any clear and distinct ideas that enter our minds will be true."Descartes must remove the threat of an invisible demon that inserts ideas and doubts into our minds to fool us , in order to rely on his ?clear and distinct' rule. In constructing his argument for God's existence, Descartes analyzes several aspects of the nature of human thought. He begins by outlining the various types of thoughts we have, which include ideas, thoughts, volitions and judgments.
Ideas, or images of ideas can only exist within the mind and are certain of existence. Volitions, or choices are firmly within the mind and are also certain. Emotions, such as love, fear, hate, all exist in the mind and are certain as well. Judgments involve reference to effects outside the mind and are subject to doubt. Therefore, judgments are not certain and distinct.
Descartes believes that images, volitions, and emotions are never false but it is our judgments that are misleading.Descartes states that among ideas, "some appear to be innate, some to be adventitious and others to have been invented by (him)" He is mainly interested in ideas, because ideas exist within the mind and are certain. Descartes is able to examine ideas and gain knowledge form them. Innate ideas mean they are present at birth, in other words we are implanted with certain ideas at our creation.He often uses ?innate ideas' to explain the mind's original programming. "An infant's mind is programmed with the rules of logic.
Consider as an example the valid rule, modus ponens.Let P and Q stand for variables? the rules states that, if P then Q is true and P is true, then it follows that Q is true. We know that we are programmed with this rule because young children, who have never studied logic and have never entertained the rule, when given an argument in which the variables above are replaced by actual sentences, are able to intuit the validity of the argument."Descartes believed our minds are programmed with eternal truths, "Whatever comes into existence must have been brought into existence by something else." He also discovers that the idea of God is only part of his initial programming but also that God, operating through secondary sources such as his parents, is the programmer.Adventitious ideas are created by outside objects but Descartes, "points out that, even if his adventitious ideas are produced by external objects, he has no reason for believing that his ideas resemble the objects which produced them.
"Descartes believes adventitious ideas exist due to their causes in physical objects because nature has taught him to think this . He demonstrates this problem with the two ideas of the sun. Our senses display that the sun is a small object. Astronomy projects that the sun is a large object. It is an example of A Priori vs.A Posteriori or Reason vs.
Perception. Descartes concludes that the source of our ideas is in the mind using our reason, not our senses. Almost everything that we believe to be true is through perception. However, the senses are sometimes deceptive. Presume that everything our senses tell us is false.
Descartes points out that we have dreams regularly and in those dreams, everything we experience is not real in the physical sense. It is reasonable to doubt everything our senses tell us. Using similar logic, we can say that everything we have learned from physics, astronomy, medicine, and other such fields are all doubtful. Descartes even believed simple logical statements such as 2 + 3 = 5 or a square has 4 sides could be conceived as false.Through the theory of innate ideas, Descartes believed that God, "eternal, infinite, omniscient, omnipotent, and the Creator of all things which are in addition to Himself" caused the idea of God in his mind.
When a manufacturer creates a product, he stamps his name or logo to the product. At the moment of his creation, God imposed the idea of himself in the mind of Descartes.In other words, God stamped the innate idea of Himself into Descartes' mind at birth. If God caused this idea to be in his mind, and all ideas are clear and distinct, God exists. This argument is referred to as the Trademark argument. This argument is not very convincing.
A person does not need to have God implant an idea of Himself into the person's mind to have an idea of God.Anyone can have the idea of God but they lack the details of the existence of God. Descartes defines God as an infinite being and states that people are finite beings. A problem with the argument is Descartes says that the infiniteness can never be fully understood by a finite being, but yet God exists and gave us the idea of him. To suggest that the idea of God is innate and too difficult for people to invent themselves does not remove any doubt.Descartes proof does not allow us to be 100% certain that God exists.
I may believe he exists, that God implanted the idea of him in me, but there still remains a fraction of a doubt that it is wrong. Descartes expanded his argument for the existence of God stating ideas should be observed as modes of consciousness.Since the idea is an effect, the cause of the effect must possess as much reality as the effect. Descartes uses the example of a stone, "which previously did not exist, and could not begin to exist unless it was produced by something which contains, either formally or eminently everything to be found in the stone" When this principle is applied to the idea of God, Descartes declared that the cause, God, must have as much reality and perfection as the idea of God.It is of the nature of perfection that a thing is perfect only if it exists.
Therefore, a perfect God must exist. Objective reality cannot exist without formal reality, meaning an idea cannot originate without a cause. The ideas could be less perfect than their cause, but they could not be more perfect.Descartes knew that he was not the cause of his own idea of God. He thinks that any idea of an infinite, perfect, all-knowing God exceeds his own mental ability. Through the idea of "degrees of reality" Descartes conclusion is that a finite being, having a lesser degree of reality than an infinite one, could not have created the idea of God.
The cause must be at least as real as the effect.Descartes trusts that God caused the idea of God in his mind. God is the cause, and the cause embraces as much perfection and reality as the effect (idea of God). After Descartes proved his own existence and the existence of God, he tried to demonstrate God was the cause of his existence. In the first argument Descartes argues that, since he has an idea of God, God exists; in the second argument he argues that, since he exists, God exists.Descartes can show that even his own existence depends upon God, then that will lend to his certainty about God's existence.
Descartes second argument can be viewed as a traditional version of the Cosmological argument for God's existence. Descartes' existence either came form himself, his parents, from another source less perfect than God, or God. He rejects the idea of himself causing his own creation.He concludes, "But were I myself the author of my being, I should doubt nothing and I should desire nothing, and finally no perfection would be lacking to me; for I should have bestowed on myself every perfection of which I possessed and idea and should thus be a God." Although his parents may be the cause of his body, they are not the cause of his thinking existence.If they were to be the cause of his existence, they would have just as much reality as Descartes would.
Descartes supposes that his parents are not self-creative and concludes that "although all that I believed respecting them be true, it does not, nevertheless, follow that I am conserved by them, or even that I was produced by them, in so far as I am a thinking being.All that, at the most, they contributed to my origin was the giving of certain dispositions (modifications) to the matter in which I have hitherto judged that I or my mind, which is what alone I now consider to be myself, is inclosed; and thus there can here be no difficulty with respect to them, and it is absolutely necessary to conclude from this alone that I am, and possess the idea of a being absolutely perfect, that is, of God, that his existence is most clearly demonstrated."A further suggestion is that Descartes was caused by a finite cause less perfect than God. He responds noting that this finite cause would have to possess the idea of infinite perfection as well; therefore we need to inquire into its cause as well."All other possible candidates have been eliminated as a source for his existence, God alone remains; and, given the truth of the principle that whatever exists has a cause, it follows, Descartes declares, that God exists we must of necessity conclude from the fact alone that I exist, or that the idea of a supremely perfect ? that is of God ? is in me, that the proof of God's existence is grounded in the highest evidence" Descartes concludes that God must be the cause of him, and that God innately implanted the idea of infinite perfection in him.
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. Descartes succeeded in some parts of his proof for the existence of God, but failed in proving God's existence from a logical point of view. Most religions prove that anybody can be right in his own description of existence of God.
So, Descartes is right in his own way, but to others to accept his idea is totally up to them. No one is certain that God exists. Although there are many causes that could make one believe God is for certain, those causes which might be perceived, does not necessarily make them true.
