Descartes Mind: The Existence Of God

Improved Essays
The second part of this argument focuses on the definition of God but is perceived so clearly and distinctly. The idea of God is of a supremely perfect being. A supremely perfect being has all perfections. Existence is a predicate of a perfect being, therefore, God must exist to avoid being self-contradictory. Therefore, God exists. Moreover, existence is a predicate of God, because as a most perfect being, God must possess existence, otherwise he would not be perfect. In Descartes mind, the very essence of God includes or entails his existence and existence belongs analytically to God, in fact it is a self-evident truth. Again, going back to the previous example, with three angles that are intrinsic to the definition of a triangle just as

Related Documents

  • Superior Essays

    The first possible objection I can think of for Descartes Ontological Argument for God’s Existence is that premise one could be false out of his seven premises because our perceptions change over time. For example if you say I clearly and distinctly perceive myself to have 20/20 vision when you are young doesn’t mean it’ll stay that way forever. This produces a potential misreading of what you previously clearly and distinctly perceived which has now changed. A second Objection to my argument is that the third meditation falls prey to a Cartesian circle. This means that the proof doesn’t work unless the premises support each other at the beginning and end.…

    • 1477 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    To build his argument, Descartes begins by working with the premise of there being a God: “Clearly the idea of God, that is, the idea of a supremely perfect being, is one I discover to be no less within me than the idea of any figure or number. And that it belongs to God’s nature that he always exists is something I understand no less clearly and distinctly than is the case when I demonstrate in regard to some figure or number that something also belongs to the nature of that figure or number.” (Descartes, 59). In this quote, Descartes outlines why he believes that there is a God. The rationality he employs is based upon understanding the concept of God as being supremely perfect.…

    • 1274 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Anselm’s ontological argument The existence of the God have been a question probably for the whole history of humanity. There are a plenty of arguments for God’s existence, and in this paper I am going to review Anselm’s argument for the existence of the being nothing greater than which can be conceived, one of the strongest among others. At first, I am going to summarize the argument, and then, as every argument for the God’s existence has its own defects, I am going to answer the following question – what are the weaknesses of this argument? After that, I will respond to the strongest possible objection to my attack, and then give you a summary.…

    • 608 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    “A substance that is infinite, eternal, immutable, independent, supremely intelligent, supremely powerful” (30). This is his idea of what “God” means to him. But if every idea has a formal reality, where did he get this idea from? God must be the cause of this idea therefore God does exist.…

    • 1191 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In Descartes’ second meditation, he offers up an argument for Defective Nature Doubt that brings forth the idea that we can’t be certain of anything we perceive being actual and real (153). Descartes thinks that there is a possibility that we are constantly being deceived due to the fact that we don’t know, with perfect certainty, where our ideas originate from (154). He tries to describe a method in order to dispel this Defective Nature Doubt by giving an argument for the existence of God. I think that the argument he gives for the existence of God is valid, yet I find it to be unsound due to the fact that a few of his premises are can easily be doubted. In order to express this opinion, I will first provide explanations of the premises and…

    • 1259 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The existence of God is, and has been, a very highly debated philosophical argument that has bewildered philosophers since even before the age of ‘Enlightenment.’ Many of the different arguments put forth have not adequately proven God’s existence, although, in order to move forward, failed arguments must be studied to ensure that mistakes are not repeated. One such argument is that of Saint Anselm’s Ontological Argument. Anselm’s ontological argument is about the fact that nothing greater than God can be imagined.…

    • 1868 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Great Essays

    In this essay, I will defend for the existence of God. First I will present Anselm’s ontological argument for the existence of God on the claim that he is the greatest conceivable being, then I will present Gaunilo’s objection for the unsoundness of Anselm’s argument on the claim of which there are no set limitations for the characteristic of the greatness, which I think fails. I will show that Anselm’s ontological argument can withstand Gaunilo’s objection by emphasizing the maximal characteristics God possesses. Finally, I will argue for the coherent existence of evil and God by stating the limited understanding in God’s perspective.…

    • 1091 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Ontological argument, written by philosopher St. Anselm of Canterbury in his book the Proslogion in the eleventh century, is a metaphysical argument for the existence of God in reality. In this essay I will discuss the validity of this argument. In this text Anselm states that the concept of God has the necessary and sufficient condition of being maximally perfect- ‘that than which a greater cannot be thought’- and that, since existing in reality is greater than existing only conceptually, God must exist in reality as well. Thus, if you understand the concept of God, you must agree that he is the greatest and that he exists, since these are written into the framework of the concept.…

    • 979 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    God: The Existence Of God

    • 1002 Words
    • 4 Pages

    There would be some other thing existing both in reality and in your mind and therefore that thing would be greater than God. Therefore, as Anselm’s second premise, God has to exist in both the mind and in reality to not contradict our definition of God. Following the two…

    • 1002 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    His argument states that God is the most perfect thing possible. After defining god as the greatest conceivable thing he asks “what is greater god as an idea or god as an existing thing?” if it is agreed that existing is always better than not existing god as an existing being is greater than god as an idea, therefore god must exist as if god is just an idea then he is not the most perfect conceivable thing. God must exist by…

    • 784 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The existence of God has been a topic that has been widely debated and discussed by various philosophers throughout past centuries. Even though it is nearly impossible to prove beyond a shadow of doubt that God definitely exists, His presence is still felt through the evidence of his work. The fact that God is not something made up of matter and not someone we are able to see with our own eyes makes it easy for people to be skeptical of his existence. But to simply dismiss His existence because he is not apart of the physical world would be to ignore the different arguments and justifications made throughout history about Him. Philosophers throughout history have approached the question of God’s existence with several different arguments.…

    • 2034 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Whether he was a Christian, a deist, or an atheist will likely never be sufficiently answered, but by bringing philosophical doubt into conversation with religion, Descartes did take a monumentally important risk. During a time when thinkers like Gisbert Voetius commonly equated doubt with denial, it was unavoidable that Descartes would have been accused of undermining the church. Though he carefully wore his “mask” in his writings, it may be that Descartes recognized that doubt was a force that could cleanse the church and renew spirituality. It is for this reason that Descartes, despite proving that his doubts could be solved with reason and through God, ended the Meditations by humbly declaring that: “it must be admitted that in this human…

    • 383 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    One of the most interesting topics in philosophy is the concern about the existence of God. Most of the time the way we perceive this theory can affect how we view the world and how we behave. Therefore, to discuss this topic there are three major arguments that attempt to show the existence of God. They are known as ontological argument, cosmological argument and theological argument.…

    • 961 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Rene Descartes the father of modern philosophy, a philosopher known to believe things to be true until it was proven otherwise. In these meditations Descartes had complex opinions. In the case of Descartes in meditations a greater individual than him existed. Descartes’ claim insisted with the existence of the idea of God to the real existence of God. To support his argumentative opinions, Descartes points two distinct arguments that were utilized by “Augustine in the fourth century and Thomas Aquinas in the thirteenth century” (Shouler).…

    • 1137 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    It is obvious to him the idea of God could not have come from himself because God is perfect, and infinite, which Descartes is not nor has he ever experienced. Therefore; God is the ultimate cause of our idea of God, because Descartes could not have been the cause of the idea because he is not infinite and the idea of something can only come from something that truly is. Thus, God exists and is the cause of our idea of…

    • 986 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays