Descartes' Perfect God

Analytical Essay # 144746

Philosophy > History
Philosophy > Metaphysics
Religion and Theology > Buddhism
Religion and Theology > Other

An examination of Descarte's ideas of God, based on Descartes work "Meditation Three: Concerning God, That He Exists."

1,368 words () | 1 source | MLA | 2010 | United States

Published on: Sep 30, 2010

Paper Summary:

This paper focuses its explorations on Rene Descartes' idea of God as seen in his work, "Meditation Three: Concerning God, That He Exists." The paper initially describes the views of God that Descartes expresses in both the third and fifth meditation, explains them, then for each one finds flaws that render Descartes' premise relatively void. The paper continues to argue against Descartes' particular stance, noting that he goes into the levels of reality of an idea of a substance as opposed to the substance itself. The paper asserts that Descartes relies excessively on the existence of God in the majority of his meditations, so it makes sense that he would try on three separate occasions to prove the existence of God; without God, the rest of his arguments would fall flat, and would not have been as influential as they ultimately were.

From the Paper:

"It is at this point that Descartes unveils the Principle of Adequate Reality, though not by name. According to this principle, something must have at least as much formal reality as it has objective reality - the idea of the substance would not be as clear or strong if the substance itself was not as clear or strong. This is the principle that he uses to provide his first proof for a god. His idea of god is a perfect, non-deceiving, infinite being, so the objective reality for god would be infinite. Hence, the formal reality for god would also be infinite, given that something must have at least as much formal reality as it has objective reality. Deception is imperfect, so his idea of a perfect god would be wrong if that god were in fact a deceiver. Hence, Descartes' god is perfect, non-deceiving, extant, and infinite, all at the same time."

Sample of Sources Used:

Descartes, Rene, and Donald A. Cress. "Meditation Three: Concerning God, That He Exists."Meditations on First Philosophy: in Which the Existence of God and the Distinction of the Soul from the Body Are Demonstrated. Indianapolis: Hackett Pub., 1993. 24. Print.