ipl-logo

Descartes Proof Of God Analysis

483 Words2 Pages

I will argue that Descartes ' proof of God in theory sounds valid, until one realizes they 're being led in a circle. Descartes has an idea of an infinite, perfect (omnipotent, omniscient, and omnibenevolent) being or God. He believes the fact he, a finite being, can imagine such a perfect being, must mean this being instilled the idea in his mind. He claims that this idea is clear and distinct, or in other words, cannot be denied. Therefore God exists, and because God exists, he would not deceive Descartes by allowing him to have clear and distinct ideas that are false (SparkNotes Editors). It seems as though Descartes relies on his mind to imagine this perfect being, and then relies on this perfect being to not deceive his mind; but if the perfect being doesn 't exist, his mind could be deceiving him. In other words, Descartes has a clear and distinct idea of God, and he can trust this idea because God exists and would not deceive him. But how does he know God exists? Because he has a clear and distinct idea of Him. This sounds to me as if he 's going in a circle with his argument. …show more content…

However in the end, Descartes ' argument still relies on the fact a God exists, and without being able to prove a God exists, he fails at what he was trying to accomplish. Descartes can 't imagine a perfect God, because 'perfect ' is subjective and he can 't prove God to exist, because it is not necessary that we are created by a God. We could just as well be created by infinite invisible monster scientists, or the big bang. In conclusion, I have argued that Descartes ' proof of God, written about in Meditation III, is not a valid way of proving God 's existence. I 'm not suggesting there isn 't a God, I 'm suggesting Descartes ' proof isn 't adequate proof. He can 't rely on a God to not deceive him in his mission to prove there is a God, that just doesn 't make sense. It 's an argument that goes in a circle. Therefore it isn 't logical reasoning towards the existence

Show More
Related

  • How Does Descartes Argument That God Exist

    127 Words  | 1 Pages

    Descartes gave a few arguments that God exists and is real. Desocrates believed our idea of God is that God is a perfect being, he believed he is more perfect to exist than not to exist. Desocrates also believed that God is a infinite being. Descartes idea would be that God gave us this idea to type this paragraph about him so he must be real. When he thinks negative of an idea or thought he wonders if an evil demon plotted those thoughts.

    Read More

  • Descartes Meditations On First Philosophy: An Analysis

    172 Words  | 1 Pages

    Descartes, in his Meditations on First Philosophy, used a method of doubt; he doubted everything in order to find something conclusive, which he thought, would be certain knowledge. He found that he could doubt everything, expect that he was thinking, as doubting is a type of thinking. Since thinking requires a thinker, he knew he must exist. According to Descartes if you are able to doubt your existence, then it must mean that you exist, hence his famous statement cogito ergo sum which is translated into ‘I think, therefore I am.’ Descartes said he was able to doubt the existence of his body and all physical things, but he could not doubt that his mind exists.

    Read More

  • Thomas Aquinas's Five Proofs For The Existence Of God

    419 Words  | 2 Pages

    St. Thomas Aquinas has five proofs for the existence of God. The first proof is the argument of motion. This proof explains that our senses prove that things are in motion, and that an actual movement can create a potential movement into an actual movement. Everything that is in motion is first moved by something else which would be the first mover. The first mover is understood to be God.

    Read More

  • Compare Aquinas Five Proofs Of God Existence

    126 Words  | 1 Pages

    I think Aquinas did prove God existence. Aquinas argued that there must be a designer who had the intelligence and power to create the universe itself and everything in it, which was God. Using his five proofs of god 's existence some can be supplied for his existence. The creations being put into motion, we observe motion around us but there was a mover that caused the motion which was God. The creations of elements, how things came about of course nothing was self made which is why God is the maker or creator.

    Read More

  • Plato's Views On The Allegory Of The Cave

    1377 Words  | 6 Pages

    Anselm’s argument is based on this known definition of the concept of God alone. Descartes’ argument for the existence of God is based on his foundation of knowledge, logic. Humans have the idea in their minds of infinite perfection. Humans also have the idea of themselves as inferior to this idea as imperfect. For humans to have the idea of infinite perfection, there must be truth in the reason for them having this idea.

    Read More

  • Design Argument Essay: Is It Possible To Believe In God

    903 Words  | 4 Pages

    This argument says that we can deduce the existence of God from the concept of God. Just by thinking of Him, he must exist, otherwise, we would have no conception of this being. This argument is much more convincing than the design argument but does have its flaws, which will be explained later. St Anselm says that God is ‘greater than which cannot be conceived.’ If we could think of something greater than God, then this greater thing would be God.

    Read More

  • Descartes's Argument On The Existence Of God

    753 Words  | 4 Pages

    Existence is something that can be imagined and therefore is false and a fallacy. How does Descartes really know he exists maybe he is just imaging it all and that his premises behind the existence of God are fake as well. If someone exist then they must have been born which would mean that Descartes parents where the ones who brought him into existence, and their parents brought them in to existence and so on and so on. This would mean that God did not create Descartes existence but that someone way far down the chain of human existence started it

    Read More

  • Essay On Descartes Existence

    1324 Words  | 6 Pages

    [1] Thus Descartes concludes that god exists. Now after we proved the existence of god and our self-according to Descartes we can start analyzing the four

    Read More

  • St. Anselms Argument For The Existence Of God Essay

    1024 Words  | 5 Pages

    The basic assumption, on which the entire argument stands, that God is a being than which none greater can be imagined can seem doubtful to a person who doubts the existence of God, for if one doubts that there is a being than which no greater can be conceived, then he may also be skeptical if any person has thoughts about the same being, whose existence itself is doubtful. The argument seems to “beg the question”. Moreover, St. Anselm’s idea of existence is not very clear. It is not very clear what a physical object is, what it means to say that a physical object exists and what it means to say that a non-physical object exists.

    Read More

  • Discuss The Design Argument For The Existence Of God

    648 Words  | 3 Pages

    Anselm’s reasoning was that, if a being existed only in the mind but not in reality, then a greater being was conceivable (a being which exists both in the mind and in reality). Since God is an infinitely great being, therefore, God must exist. Anselm logically proved that God existed by our understanding aside from reality and our understanding combined with reality. Another argument is the cosmological arguments. It begins by examining some empirical or metaphysical fact of the universe, from which it then follows that something outside the universe must have caused it to exist.

    Read More

  • Descartes Evil Genius Argument Essay

    2229 Words  | 9 Pages

    While Descartes is clearly considering even the most remote possibilities in his method of doubt, all he offers is the claim that such a being could exist. However, this is not seen as a solid basis upon which absolute doubt, required by Descartes, can be built. Ironically, his skepticism offers such that I am in a state of doubt, I will also have doubt about the possibility that there could even be a deceiving being. As such, my doubt about the possibility of such a being serves to undermine the greater doubt that is supposed to be generated by this being. In order for the evil demon to generate such a degree of doubt it must be possible for it to exist.

    Read More

  • Descartes Cogito Argument Analysis

    884 Words  | 4 Pages

    In this paper, I will deliver a reconstruction of Descartes’ Cogito Argument and my reasoning to validate it as indubitable. I will do so by justifying my interpretations through valid arguments and claim, by showcasing examples with reasoning. Rene Descartes is a French Philosopher of the 17th century, who formulated the philosophical Cogito argument by the name of ‘cogito ergo sum,’ also known as “I think, therefore, I am.” Rene was a skeptic philosopher amongst many scholastic philosophers at his time. He took a skeptical approach towards the relations between thoughts and existence, to interpret his cogito argument as indubitable and whether it could serve as a foundational belief.

    Read More

  • Criticisms Of Anselm's Ontological Argument

    1411 Words  | 6 Pages

    Thomas Aquinas is the second critique of Anselm’s position. Take note that Aquinas assumed that the existence of God is obvious. He supported cosmological argument to prove that God exists. The cosmological argument uses the physical things that exist in the universe to demonstrate God’s existence. In his criticism of Anselm’s argument, Aquinas disagrees with the use of the word “God” and argues only some who hear the word “God” understands what it means (Himma, 4).

    Read More

  • Anselm Vs Descartes Ontological Argument

    945 Words  | 4 Pages

    In other words, Anselm stipulates that God must exist since we can’t think of something greater than God but Descartes says the main reason why God exists is because he is a perfect being. St. Anselm and Descartes arguments are without doubt the most important arguments to the existence of God. They formed the basis for further discussion both by those that agree to these schools of thought as well as those that saw the arguments as weak and decided to show why. Both philosophers agreed that the comprehension of the concept of God was sufficient for anyone to believe in the existence of God even though Anselm argument was skewed towards our inability to conceive a more powerful being while Descartes mainly concentrates on the perfect nature in

    Read More

  • Why Do God Exist

    1440 Words  | 6 Pages

    However, does giving reason for our belief really suffice to be certain in our claim for the existence of God? St. Thomas Aquinas, a philosopher and a doctor of the Catholic Church provided proofs in proving the existence of God by way of a cosmological argument labeled as the five proofs of God’s existence. It establishes logical proofs as to how physical things

    Read More

More about Descartes Proof Of God Analysis

Open Document