Third MeditationThe Existence of God Essay - 1124 Words

In the Third Meditation, entitled â€Å"Of God: That He Exists†, Rene Descartes presents an argument for the existence of God. Meditation III talks about what is real and how to justify it. Descartes acknowledges of being doubtful of bodily things but is absolutely assured that he exists and he clearly and distinctly perceives this fact. As he confirms: I am a thinking (conscious) thing, that is, a being who doubts, affirms, denies, knows a few objects, and is ignorant of many, - [who loves, hates], wills, refuses, who imagines likewise, and perceives. . . (Descartes p 66) However, he could not be certain unless all clear and distinct perception can be true. From this he concludes, whatever is clearly and distinctly perceived must be true.†¦show more content†¦(Descartes 67) Second, consists of â€Å"volitions or affections [i.e. willing or fearing], and other judgments† (Descartes 67). This means he cannot be mistaken with regard to the ideas of his own. Howe ver, he can make mistakes through his judgments. â€Å"There thus only remain our judgments, in which we must take diligent heed that we be not deceived† (Descartes 67). Thus, this leads Descartes into categorizing his idea by their origins. Ideas can be innate, adventitious, comes from outside of us, and can be made by us, example an idea of a unicorn. Of these three ideas, Descartes’ takes the greatest importance in adventitious ideas. He realizes that most of the time we believe we perceive things outside of our mind without any degree of reality. For example, his idea of the two suns: The one, by which it appears to me extremely small draws its origin from the senses, and should be placed in the class of adventitious ideas; the other, by which it seems to be many times larger than the whole earth, is taken up on astronomical grounds, that is, elicited from certain notions born with me. . . (Descartes 68) Obviously, both of these ideas cannot be true. Therefore, this leads him to scrutinize carefully the question of the external causes of reality. Descartes shows two notion of realityShow MoreRelated Descartes Third Meditation: Proof of Gods Existence Essay1370 Words   |  6 Pages Descartes Third Meditation: Proof of Gods Existence In Rene Descartes Meditations on First Philosophy, Descartes is seeking to find a system of stable, lasting and certain knowledge, which he can ultimately regard as the Truth. In his methodical quest to carry out his task, Descartes eventually arrives at the proverbial fork in the road: how to bridge the knowledge of self with that of the rest of the world. Descartesà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ answer to this is to prove the existence of God. The purpose of this essayRead MoreComparing Aquinas And Descartes Arguments For The Existence Of God766 Words   |  4 PagesAquinas and Descartes both have arguments for the existence of God, with some similarities and a multitude of differences. 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Next, I will debate some of DescartesRead MoreDescartes : Synopsis Of Meditations 1987 Words   |  4 Pages Descartes: Synopsis of meditations 1, 2, 3 (p530-546) In what follows, I will summarize and come up with some explications to the first three meditations covered by Descartes. The first deals with the method of doubt, the second deals with the human mind and body, and finally the third with the existence of God. I will summarize these parts separately, in that order. In the first meditation, the meditator, who’s Descartes, introduces us with â€Å"the method of doubt†. WhatRead MoreEssay on Mediations of First Philosophy by Descartes1296 Words   |  6 Pagesof First Philosophy† Descartes tries to prove the existence of God in the third meditation. He does this by coming up with several premises that eventually add up to a solid argument. First, I will explain why Descartes ask the question, does god exist? And why does Descartes think he needs such and argument at this point in the text. Secondly, I will explain, in detail, the arguments that Descartes makes and how he comes to the conclusion that God does exist. Next, I will debate some of DescartesRead MoreEssay on Descartes Meditations1153 Words   |  5 PagesDescartes Meditations The way Descartes chose to write this piece literature captivated me. Descartes was a very intelligent man who wanted to make sense of the world he lived in. The format he used was unusual. It seems to me that he may have used this format, which is a replication of the book of Genesis in the Bible, to have a deeper and more profound impact on the reader. There are many similarities between Descartes Meditations and the first book of the Bible, Genesis. ForRead MoreThomas Aquinas vs. Descarates Essays673 Words   |  3 PagesAQUINA’S V. DESCARATES Meditation III Several hundred years ago, two great philosophers Thomas Aquinas’s and Rene Descartes used the method of ontological argument for the existence of God and used intuition and reason alone to get to each other’s theory. Rene Descartes wrote out several mediations, but the one we’re going to touch base on is meditation III that he wrote in the 1600’s; While Thomas Aquinas’s wrote his five proofs of God in 1270 that specifies God’s existence in each proof; the one