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DESCARTES & GOD.
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Existence & proofs of God as basic elements of philosopher's conclusions about reality, thought, the material world.... More...
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Paper Abstract:
Existence & proofs of God as basic elements of philosopher's conclusions about reality, thought, the material world.
Paper Introduction:
The existence of God is basic to the philosophy of Rene Descartes. Because Descartes' philosophy depends on skeptical arguments which are essentially subjective, it is important for the thinker to not be deceived. A demon or devil would undoubtedly attempt to fool the thinker; however, God would not lead a person into false avenues. God is perfect, and a perfect Being would not deceive, or else God would lack perfection, which would be an impossibility.
Descartes' proofs of God are primarily scholastic in their configuration. There are two proofs of God that Descartes uses: (1) The ontological argument for the existence of God, which was first developed in the eleventh century by Saint Anselm, who was perhaps the greatest theologian ever to have been the Archbishop of Canterbury; and (2) The first cause argument, which was one of
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the necessity ofthe existence of God determines me to think in this way" (Wilson 2 5).This is the ontological argument for the existence of God. God, as the Prime Mover, has given us the ability todiscern the true from the false. When God'sexistence has been proven, the remainder of Descartes' philosophy proceedssmoothly. This enables Descartes tounderstand mathematics, and physics also, if he remembers that he must knowthe truth about bodies by the mind alone, not by mind and body together. Thus Descartes arrived at the idea-: "Cogitoergo sum" or "I think, thereforeI am." Although Descartes eliminates everything, he can at least think.Thought is the one thing that exists, and he has no doubt that he isthinking; and because God exists and is perfect, Descartes can be certainthat God would not deceive him with regard to the truth of this. This is Cartesian dualism in which the body and mind are like twoclocks which operate independently of one another. A demon or devil would undoubtedly attempt to fool the thinker; however,God would not lead a person into false avenues. Besides being Archbishop of Canterbury, Anselm was a member of theBenedictine Order. . Hackett. Descartes explicitlytreats existence as a characteristic, the possession of which by a given xis properly open to inquiry. Thus Descartes moves from total doubt to complete belief in theexistence of spirit and matter. Discourse on Method. The Essential Descartes. For, if a mind could conceive of abeing better than thee, the creature would rise above the Creator, and thisis most absurd" (Mavrodes and Hackett 95-96). Cartesian doubt, then, proceeds to be skeptical of everything exceptthe thinker's own thought. God has given Descartes such a strong inclination to believe in bodies,that He would be perpetrating a falsehood if there were none; consequently,bodies exist. . P. God plays an all important roleas the foundation for Descartes' system of philosophy. Thus Anselm states:"So truly, therefore, dost thou exist, Lord, my God, that thou canst notbe conceived not to exist; and rightly. New York: G. The essence or defining nature of each typeof thing includes various predicates, and the ontological argument ofDescartes insists that existence must be included among the definingpredicates of God. When the mind wills anarm or a leg to move, the mind thinks the thought that seems to move thelimb; however, the limb has already been programmed by God to move just atthe same time the mind desires it to move. God would not deceive, or else He would not be perfect; deceptionwould be an imperfection and could not be a part of the theistic purity ofInfinite Wisdom. Aquinas' proofs commence from some general feature of the worldaround us that is revealed to our senses, and arrive at the conclusion thatthere could not be a world with this particular quality unless there werealso the ultimate reality known as God. Aquinas arrived at five ways of proving the existenceof God. In Meditations V, Descartes asserts: "While from the fact that I cannotconceive God without existence, it follows that existence is inseparablefrom Him, and hence that He really exists; not that my thought can bringthis to pass, or impose any necessity on things, but, on the contrary,because the necessity which lies in the thing itself, i.e. Problems and Perspectives in the Philosophy of Religion. Rene Descartes reformulated Anselm's ontological argument so that itis assumed that existence is a property or predicate. Rene Descartes: A Biography. New York: New American Library, 1969.----------------------- 6 . Descartes' proofs of God are primarily scholastic in theirconfiguration. AsDescartes says in his Discourse on Method: ". God is perfect, and aperfect Being would not deceive, or else God would lack perfection, whichwould be an impossibility. . There is anactual, material world; otherwise, God would be allowing us to livecontinually with a false concept. Chicago: Open Court, 1962.Mavrodes, George I. as I observed that thistruth, I think, therefore I am was so certain and of such evidence, that noground of doubt, however extravagant, could be alleged by the skepticscapable of shaking it, I concluded that I might, without scruple, accept itas the first principle of the Philosophy of which I was in search"(Descartes 35). There are two proofs of God that Descartes uses: (1) Theontological argument for the existence of God, which was first developed inthe eleventh century by Saint Anselm, who was perhaps the greatesttheologian ever to have been the Archbishop of Canterbury; and (2) Thefirst cause argument, which was one of the proofs developed by Saint ThomasAquinas by way of Aristotle. In other words, God without existence would not be God. God also must have provided Descartes with the faculty ofcorrecting errors; and he uses this faculty when he employs the conceptthat what is clear and distinct is true. Descartes answers this by affirming that Godintercedes between the mind and matter. Putnam's Sons, 197 .Wilson, Margaret D. . From there, knowing that God would not deceive him,Descartes moves beyond himself to know that the world is real. And so these two arguments for the existence of God form the basicfoundation for Descartes' philosophical conception of things. Another theistic argument used by Descartes was initially developedby Saint Thomas Aquinas through Aristotle; and this is also a dialecticalproof of God that is known as the first cause and cosmological conceptionof God's existence. " (Descartes 41). However, another problem is raised: Howcan spirit move matter? Trans. God, as a Perfect Being, would not foolus into believing something that is not true. Descartes' "I think, therefore I am" established the certainty of hisindividual self. According to Aquinas, either thereis a First Cause or the universe is ultimately unintelligible. Descartes formulates a similar proof of God in his Discourse onMethod. Because God is perfect, He will not behave as a deceitful devil. First of all, there must be a Prime Mover; secondly, there must bea causation from a First Cause; thirdly, from a Necessary Being, there arecontingent beings; the fourth proof is from degrees of value to AbsoluteValue; and the fifth proof arises from evidence of purposiveness in natureto a Divine Designer (Mavrodes; and Wilson 1 3-112). .. Anselm describes God as a Being who is so perfect thatfurther perfection would be impossible to imagine. Descartes, Meditations III also contains a proof ofGod similar to that of Aquinas. John Veitch. and Stuart C. Therefore, the existence ofthe material world is really true, and there is no need to have any doubtsabout it. all the thingswhich we clearly and distinctly conceive are true, is certain only becauseGod is or exists, and because all that we possess is derived from him . Boston: Allyn and Bacon, l967.Vrooman, Jack R. As Descartes states: . Works CitedDescartes, Rene. The existence of God is basic to the philosophy of Rene Descartes.Because Descartes' philosophy depends on skeptical arguments which areessentially subjective, it is important for the thinker to not be deceived.
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