Discuss the extent to which Descartes has overcome his doubts of the first Meditations In Descartes’ meditations, Descartes begins what Bernard Williams has called the project of ‘pure enquiry’ to discover an indubitable premise or foundation to base his knowledge on, by subjecting everything to a kind of scepticism now known as Cartesian doubt. This is known as foundational ism, where a philosopher basis all epistemological knowledge on an indubitable premise. Within meditation one Descartes subjects all of his beliefs regarding sensory data and even existence to the strongest and most hyperbolic of doubts. He invokes the notion of the all powerful, malign demon who could be deceiving him regarding sensory experience and even his understanding of the simplest mathematical and logical truths in order to attain an indubitable premise that is epistemologically formidable.
In meditation one Descartes has three areas of doubt, doubt of his own existence, doubt of the existence of God, and doubt of the existence of the external world. Descartes’ knowledge of these three areas are subjected to three types of scepticism the first where he believes that his senses are being deceived ‘these senses played me false, and it is prudent never to trust entirely those who have once deceived us’. The second of the forms of scepticism revolves around whether Descartes is dreaming or not ‘I see so clearly that there are no conclusive signs by means of which one can distinguish between being awake and being asleep’. The aforementioned malign demon was Descartes third method of doubt as he realised God would not deceive him. Descartes’s earch for an underlying foundational premise ends when he realise’s he exists, at least when he thinks he exists ‘doubtless, then, that I exist and, let him deceive me as he may, he can never bring it about that I am nothing, so long as I shall be conscious that I am something. So that it must, in fine, be maintained, all things being maturely and carefully considered, that this proposition I am, I exist, is necessarily true each time it is expressed by me or conceived in my mind’.
The Essay on Does God Exist Awareness Existence Evidence
In this essay I discuss why there is proof that there is a supernatural being known as God, who has created everything we know and experience. The mere claim, there could be a 'Proof for the Existence of God,' seems to invite ridicule. But not always are those right who laugh first and think later. Remember how all-knowing doctors / scientists laughed at every new discovery. They laughed when they ...
This argument ‘I think therefore I am’ is Descartes’ cog ito argument as in Latin it is cog ito ergo sum. The cog ito argument raises some difficulties, as when thinking results in existence not thinking should therefore result in non-existence leaving the problem of returning to thought from non-existence. Descartes could however reply that the term thought includes the conceiving and perception of all sensory input which is constant, resulting with a human being who thinks non-stop from birth till death removing the problem of dropping out of existence periodically. Human beings are capable of simultaneous thought, this is best illustrated when a person is dreaming as the person will be receiving sensory data from both the external world and from the dream therefore the human is thinking on more than one level at a time which could result in there being two existence’s. A further Cartesian response could be that the level of thought or the amount of thought is irrelevant, all that is important is that the thought is being generated by the one individual, therefore it is the one individual that exists.
It is seemingly impossible to criticise the cog ito argument as every time it is presented to our mind we are forced to assent to it, it may be the case that this argument is infallible or at least indubitable, Descartes therefore has convincingly overcome his doubt of his own existence. Now that Descartes realised that he was a thinking being he focused his efforts on trying to prove the existence of God for this Descartes has two arguments based on a priori reasoning, the ontological argument and the Trademark argument. Descartes first argument for the existence of God is known as the Trademark argument. The argument states that we all have the idea of God in our head (‘… there is a real and positive idea of God or of a Being of supreme perfection to my mind… .’ ) as we are not able to create the idea of a perfect Being this idea must have been planted inside us by God, as a designer leaves a trademark.
The Essay on God Exictence
For many years philosophers have disputed argued, dissected and used countless of other devices in order to prove God's existence. Is there someone or something that has been there since time started? All my life I was raised to believe that God exists. As I grew older, wiser, and take philosophy classes, I have heard about different beliefs that could of possibly persuaded me to lean towards the ...
This argument is substantiated by:’ In considering this more attentively, it occurs to me in the first place that I should not be astonished if my intelligence is not capable of comprehending why God acts as He does; and that there is thus no reason to doubt of His existence from the fact that I may perhaps find many other things besides this as to which I am able to understand neither for what reason nor how God has produced them. For, in the first place, knowing that my nature is extremely feeble and limited, and that the nature of God is on the contrary immense, incomprehensible, and infinite, I have no further difficulty in recognising that there is an infinitude of matters in His power, the causes of which transcend my knowledge; and this reason suffices to convince me that the species of cause termed final, finds no useful employment in physical (or natural) things; for it does not appear to me that I can without temerity seek to investigate the (inscrutable) ends of God.’ The trademark argument has been subjected to criticism, John Cottingham’s criticism was that he does not have the idea of God in his head therefore God does not exist. Descartes could, however, respond that everyone has the idea of God within them including John Cottingham whether they agree with it or not. A further criticism is similar to the substitution criticism of the ontological argument, it is possible to have the idea of a perfect pizza within one’s mind and as it is impossible to conceive of perfection within the limits of reason it must have been placed there by the perfect pizza maker. Descartes could reply that this argument could only work for God as God has ‘every sort of perfection’ whereas a perfect pizza would not. William of Ockham, who was responsible for Ockham’s razor, could have used this argument against the trademark argument.
The Term Paper on Thomas Aquinas God Existence Exist
... all things that are good, do we know that God does exist. Knowing and understanding that God does exist in a world contained of nothingness, proves God's existence ... between appearance and reality when using the ontological argument to define God's existence. There are things that appear to be real in the presence ...
Ockham’s razor states that the simplest form of statement is superior to endless hypotheses ‘It is vain to do with more what can be done with fewer’ the ontological argument would be simpler if Descartes stated that we all have the idea of a God that exists in our head. Descartes’ trademark argument does not prove God’s existence to a satisfactory degree; therefore, Descartes revised Anselm’s medieval ontological argument to attempt to further prove God’s existence. The second argument Descartes presents for the existence of God is the ontological argument where he says ‘… it is necessary that I should attribute to Him every sort of perfection, although I do not get so far as to enumerate them all…
and this necessity suffices to make me conclude (after having recognised that existence is a perfection) that this first and sovereign being really exists.’ This argument put simply means that God is perfect and as it is more perfect to exist than not exist God exists. There are many criticisms of the above argument for the existence of God these include criticisms put forward by Immanuel Kant and the Fideist’s. Kant’s criticism was to say, for example ‘Pizzas exist’ adds nothing to the concept of a Pizza ‘otherwise, it would not be exactly the same thing that exists but something more than we had thought of in the concept; and we could not therefore say that the exact object of my concept exists.’ Therefore the concept of a pizza could never be the same as a pizza that exists. If Kant’s objection is correct the ontological argument fails to prove anything because it is based on the idea that existence is one of God’s attributes and according to Kant existence cannot be one of God’s attributes as it is not a real attribute; existence is not at predicate. Therefore existence does not make God any more perfect. The criticism offered by Kant warrants the dismissal of the ontological argument as it sets out that existence not being a property does not increase the greatness of God as greatness is measured by something’s attributes.
The Essay on God’s Existence Can Be Proven a Priori
... proven to exist a priori, including God. He came to the conclusion that existence could only ever be contingent. Kant also disagrees with Descartes ontological argument. ... Descartes; he set out his argument firstly by defining God as ‘a supremely perfect being’. From this he tried to prove the existence of God, because God ...
There is however a counter-criticism that, it may be the case that necessary existence is a real attribute and since it is part of Anselm’s argument that God’s existence is necessary the ontological argument may withstand the criticism. The ontological argument attempts to prove the existence of God by a priori reasoning this has been criticised by a group of philosophers called the Fideists. The Fideists argue that it is arrogant to assume that something as limited as the human mind is capable of understanding the existence of a being as perfect and infinite as God using reason alone. The Fideists might agree that we can prove by purely logical reasoning that certain things do not exist, it can be proven that square circles and largest primes do not exist. If it is possible to prove by purely logical means that certain things do not exist it should follow that we can prove by the use of such pure reason that certain things do exist such as an ontological proof for the existence of God. The counter-criticism above makes an analogy between square circles and God which are quite different, the argument of the Fideists is that the idea of God is such that the human mind could not conceive whereas the idea of a square circle is the logical amalgamation of a square and a circle.
The human mind is not capable of conceiving complex theories as infinity, if Thomas Aquinas was correct when he said ‘God is infinite’ we are incapable of understanding God and therefore unable to prove God’s existence by employing the use of reason. The ontological argument again fails to prove God’s existence to a satisfactory degree, however, Descartes continues to use these proofs of God’s existence to then move on to try to prove the existence of material things, ‘God possesses the power to produce everything that I am capable of perceiving with distinctness, and I have never deemed that anything was impossible for Him’. Descartes’ proof of the existence of the external world is based solely on God’s existence as he uses God to substantiate his clear and distinct ideas, he says that he can see things in his mind’s eye, in other words he can conceive of them so maybe the external world really exists. This argument is unconvincing as it is possible to conceive of almost anything in your mind’s eye such as a Pegasus (a horse with wings) as it is an amalgamation of two clear and distinct ideas, that of a horse and of wings. This, however, does not mean that it exists as if God has allowed this idea in the mind he must not be the perfect being that Descartes believes in.
The Term Paper on Descartes Argument for the Existence of Corporeal Things
... follows Descartes assumption that God exists. While Descartes has an argument that proves the existence of God, it is possible to argue against the existence of God. If that argument ... producing sense ideas is in corporeal things. 10. Therefore corporeal things do exist. Descartes’ argument that corporeal things exist exemplifies his use of, and ...
Descartes said, ‘I do not see how He could be excused of deception if in truth these ideas came from or were produced by causes other than corporeal things. And accordingly one must confess that corporeal things exist.’ This means that because he can see the external world in his minds eye what he can see must have a cause so that cause must be the external world. Descartes needed God to prove the existence of corporeal things because God, being a ‘Being of all perfection’s’ would not lie to him about the existence of such things. This conclusion to Descartes’ meditations would have been an acceptable conclusion if he had succeeded to prove the existence of God to a satisfactory degree, however this was not the case so instead his ‘proof’ of the existence of corporeal things is clouded by a thin veil of theology. Descartes’ attempts to extricate himself from his sceptical doubts of the meditations had a varying degree of success, his doubt of his own existence was well surmounted with the indubitable ‘cog ito’ argument. The second of his doubts, that of the existence of God was not extricated as successfully with the unconvincing trademark argument and the out of date ontological argument.
Descartes then went on to tackling his doubt regarding the existence of the external world, which was done well but was based on the shady proofs for the existence of God. Descartes may not have proven the existence of God or the existence of the external world however he did produce a new style of philosophy in which he attempted to base all of his epistemological knowledge (or beliefs) on a single indubitable premise, this style of philosophy now known as foundational ism has been and is still used by philosophers today at great credit to Descartes, Rene Descartes proved himself within this book to be the father of modern philosophy.
The Essay on The Non Existence Of God
God does not exist, it is a scientifically proven fact. There are many facts and paradoxes which exist to disprove this belief. Don't be led in by the bunch of fanatics and weak minded people who would have you believe that we're all being watched over by some divine being. "Can God build a wall that is so heavy he cannot lift it?" - Joseph Powell, Professor of Philosophy, Columbia University. ...