Descartes' "Trademark Argument"

Paper Summary:

This paper argues that Descartes' "Trademark Argument" can only be a sound argument if all the premises are true leading to a true conclusion; thereby, all the premises must be 100% true and there is no argument within an argument. The author points out that there is a problem in the first premise because Descartes says he has this idea of a perfect being but he doesn't mention anything else besides the fact that he has this idea of something perfect. The paper contends that Descartes' actually trying to prove that there is a God is just ridiculous because the author feels that God's existence is supposed to be based on a belief system; there are many religions held by many types of people in the world, and every religion seems to have their own God and own story behind how the world became into existence.

From the Paper:

"The first thing Descartes said in his argument was, "I have an idea of a perfect being." Well his perfect being he is referring to is supposed to be God. Since Descartes' whole goal of this argument is to prove the existence of God, this was probably a good start to the argument. He kept it simple, and short without too many details. Once he had this idea, he probably might have been thinking how this idea came to him, which brings up the next premise in his argument."

More papers on Descartes' "Trademark Argument":

• Essay # 26714 : "Descartes' Ontological Argument"
• Essay # 38190 : "Descartes' Cosmological Argument"
• Essay # 50460 : "Descartes's "Mediations"

APA Citation:

MLA Citation: