Descartes Meditation 1 Analysis

Diana Palma

Professor Klyng

Philosophy 1

1 May 2018

Descartes: Meditations In Meditations I, Descartes begins by stating he must start to build new foundations for the false beliefs he had been convinced of since his youth. He concludes he cannot find knowledge in the world in places like school and consequently decides to focus on his mind and doubt all his beliefs until he finds one that cannot be doubted. All up to the present time his knowledge was learned through the senses; but the senses are deceptive (Descartes). He states he cannot deny the obvious, such as doubting if his body belongs to him, but he is man capable of dreaming and in those dreams, there are no indications where he could distinguish between reality from sleep. Although

He concluded he does not have a body and there is no certainty. Consequently, he begins to wonder if he exists. The purpose of the evil genius at the end of the first Meditation continued into the second is to establish his existence. Descartes argues that if there is in fact an evil genius deceiving him, he is certain he exists because the spirit must deceive someone, and that someone is him. He concludes that even if this spirit deceives him, he cannot doubt he exists. When he establishes he exists because he can be deceived, he states “I must finally conclude that this proposition. I am, I exist, is necessarily true…” (Descartes). Descartes took to the concept of radical skepticism in the first meditations until he established his famous argument; that is, he decided to doubt all his beliefs until he arrived in a belief he cannot doubt. He resolved his skepticism with the evil genius argument by recognizing to himself that he is thinking substance no god or demon can make him doubt. The concept is important to Descartes because he tries to make sense of human nature through radical

In the third meditation titled, Of God, that He Exists, Descartes purpose is to prove God is the cause of our ideas. He begins by assorting his thoughts into different kinds. There are three sources for ideas which can be innate, adventitious or invented by us. Descartes then tries to determine how does he know the things he is certain of. He concludes the knowledge of his existence are clear and distinct perceptions therefore they are certain (SparkNotes Editor). He establishes that anything that is clear and distinct is true and he uses this to prove the existence of God. He begins considering God as a substance created by himself and everything else but realizes his idea of God has more objective reality, an innate idea that is present at in our minds when we are born, rather than formal reality, which is simple reality. He states, “I am substance, nevertheless I should have the idea of an infinite substance-since I am finite-…” (Descartes). Descartes doubts come from his awareness of a more perfect being. He cannot doubt the existence of God because he has a clear perception of his existence. Descartes then questions whether he is on his way to be a perfect being, but he quickly disregards this idea because although his knowledge may grow and more, he does not believe it “can ever be infinite, since it will never reach a point so high that it will be unable to attain any greater