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Descartes Theory of Gods Existence In A Discourse on Method, Descartes has a theory that he uses to prove that God does exist. The beginning basis for this theory lies in a statement that he had made earlier which he uses (as his method states) to form a strong foundation for his argument. This fact is that because he could doubt the apparent truth of things and that if he stopped thinking he would have no reason to believe that he existed, the essence of humans must be to think. Once this framework is laid down for his argument, he begins to state his belief. Descartes saw that he doubted things that were in his life, from beliefs to truths he was told. He deduced that since he doubted, he could not have been a perfect being since he determined that knowing the truth is much more perfect than doubting what you perceive the truth to be.
He said that there must be someone or something that is perfect because he knew that he was not perfect, so since this being or object had instilled the concept of perfection in him, it must be the one that is more perfect. He saw nothing in nature that would qualify as superior in the sense that he had stated and it was impossible that the notion that he was not perfect could have been instilled in him by nothing, so he determined that the only other logical answer was that God placed it in him, therefore, God exists. Next, he determined that he was not the only human being in existence and that the people that he interacted with were not all figments of his imagination due to the fact that he knew that he was not perfect. Had the other people just been his imagination and had he really been a true individual, he would have no context to judge against and regardless of the actual level of perfection that he was lacking, he would have thought that he was perfect. This is important in his proof since it, again, proves the dependency on the existence of a God who, as Descartes states, provides everything that he had received. Next, he determined more on the nature of God by saying that he could not have any traits that are deemed negative in our societies such as doubt, sadness, and the like since all of us have want to get rid of these aspects and God, being perfect, would not have any need to want anything, proving yet again, that we are not perfect and there is a need for this perfection.
Descartes then goes on to say that because the intelligent nature is different from the body, all that were created by something have a dependency toward it, and dependency is a state of imperfection. Since he created everyone in the world, all are dependent to him, and all are imperfect so that we cannot, as Descartes states, subsist without him for a second. The final main point that Descartes makes in the proof of the existence of God says that without him, we cannot know anything for certain. While we do have a certain assurance that there is truth in things that we think are obvious such as that the sky is blue and grass is green, how do we know for sure? There is no way to be certain since just as we dream things that appear to be as real as anything we have ever experienced, how do we know that what we think is reality really is? We cant on our level, so we need to have a belief on a metaphysical level there exists the one true answer to all of the questions and doubts that we might have.
This metaphysical level is the perfection that God has, therefore, we must believe that God exists. As for what I believe about this argument, I dont totally believe it. It makes perfect logical sense the way that he derives many of his arguments, and while they are all built on a foundation that is strong for Descartes, himself, I do not always share the foundation that he believes in. The way that he explains it is not the only possible conclusion and it seems like he is limiting himself in his search for truth in that he does not explore the fact that maybe there is no perfect being. Just because we are not perfect certainly does not mean that there is true perfection somewhere and the idea of perfection that we have is more or less a fuzzy one and because of the fact that it is different for everyone, there might not be a true absolute definition of what it really is. While Descartes proof is very interesting in how he goes about deriving truths by exploring some of the options that might be the truth, I do have a hard time accepting some of the conclusions that he states as truths. 34 f
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