What Is Descartes Version Of The Ontological Argument

Descartes’ version of the ontological argument offers a logical conclusion for the existence of God. As is consistent among all versions of the ontological arguments, a series of premises are offered, that once excepted naturally draw the conclusion that God exists. Descartes argument builds off of the argument originally presented by Anselm 500 years prior to Descartes account. Arguably, Descartes strengthened the argument through adapting it to his Cartesian philosophy. Although, improvements may have been made, Descartes’ argument suffers from the same fallacious reasoning present in Anselm’s argument. Before breaking down the argument it is important to note that Descartes defines God as “a Being supremely perfect” (Meditation 5). He begins the argument with a claim regarding essence: “When I imagine a triangle, although there may nowhere in the world be such a figure outside my thought, or ever have been, there is nevertheless in this figure a certain determinate nature, form, or essence” (Meditation 5). Elaborating upon what was said here, all things, whether they exist or not, have an essence. In this case, a triangle has in it’s essence, the property of three

However, such a belief is absurd when given adequate thought. For example, if you were to imagine a dog, the idea of the dog existing as opposed to not existing, wouldn’t add anything to the fundamental essence of the dog, it would simply denote that the dog existed. Setting the first objection aside, even if existence was an additive property, the mode of logic this argument uses can provide “proofs” for the existence of just about anything that includes existence it’s definition. One example of this would be a supremely perfect flying giraffe. Seeing as how existence is perfection, it would follow necessarily that the supremely perfect flying giraffe would