Cartesian Ontological Argument

The topic that is hidden behind existence of God is belief of people. As long as people believe in something, there is a chance that it is real. It is a common fact that all of the cultures have their own gods and believe that there is no entity that can be greater than God, positioning their God as the most perfect entity. By accepting and sharing existence of their God – we assume that he exists. It gives us an idea that things that we are imagining are true and real to some extent.

This essay will now begin the task of laying out the objection to Descartes’

However, he further explores the concept of God 's existence to find definite evidence which can support his principles and ideologies; a definite certainty. Descartes’s main argument can be seen in the Fifth Mediation as well as some earlier comments in the Third Mediation (New World Encyclopedia, 2016). Moreover, he argues that knowledge derives from the certainty of the existence of one’s own consciousness and the innate ideas it holds. To attain absolute certainty, Descartes uses the methodical doubt.

He brings up seeing object from far distances that may you may not come across as you get closer to the object. This shows that we may not see everything accurate from our senses. Descartes also brings the idea that there are things that are impossible to doubt. One example is when the meditator could not deny sitting by a fire, clothed in winter dressing gown, and holding his hand on a piece of paper. The only way that Descartes could deny that particular setting only if he was hallucinating and becoming mad.

His search for knowledge began with a claim of doubt. He doubts his senses, his body, everything he has experienced. In claiming doubt as his first step to knowledge, Descartes did not want to become a sceptic and doubt for the sake of doubting. His main intension in starting with doubt was to allow scientific inquiry to begin” (Reynolds). Once Descartes could doubt everything he “knew”, he was able to start over and really evaluate how he came to “know” these things and store them in his memories.

However, Descartes is indeed certain of the fact that he is a thinking being, and that he exists. As a result of this argument, Descartes makes a conclusion that the things he perceives clearly and distinctly cannot be false, and are therefore true (Blanchette). This clear and distinct perception is an important component to the argument that Descartes makes in his fifth meditation for the existence of God. This paper explains Descartes ' proof of God 's existence from Descartes ' fifth meditation, Pierre Gassendi 's objection to this proof, and then offers the paper 's author 's opinion on both the proof and objection.

The aim of writing this paper is to explain Descartes argument of the existence of the material world. I will walk through different stages in order to explain each idea stated by Descartes. In order to prove the existence of such a world Descartes passed through two moves: the first is by showing that material objects could only be the cause for the existence by excluding out the possible alternatives. The second move is to consider the nature of material objects and show that such attributes could only be possessed by real existent bodies. In this paper I will examine both moves by explaining them and finally I will end my paper through logical conclusion about the existence of the material world.

We know clear and distinct perceptions independently by God, and his existence provides us with a certainty we might not possess otherwise. However, another possible strategy would be to change Gods role in Descartes philosophy. Instead of seeing God as the validation of clear and distinct perceptions, rather see him as a safeguard against doubt. This strategy, however, is a problem since it re-constructs the Meditations – Philosophical work of Descartes –.This is because it would not be God, who is the ultimate foundation of knowledge, but the clear and distinct

However, in response to my objection, I imagine Descartes’ rejoinder would be in relation to his dreaming argument. He essentially offers the idea that we could be in a “matrix” in which the physical world and our bodily experiences are being simulated through a machine in which we are attached to. For example, he would argue we could believe we are perhaps outside, pedaling a bike down the road, but in actuality the motions of us doing so could really just be simulated by a machine which we are attached to while lying motionless. In refutation to this possible claim Descartes may attempt to make, I ask how could a soul, considering it is an abstract, amorphous form, be attached to such a machine; if I were to be physically attached to such a machine, then I would require a bodily form, which make the point I must have both a ‘thinking thing’ and ‘extended thing’ to exist, not one or the

Descartes idea of himself originates from the reality that he is a thinking thing. “I think therefore I am.” Descartes develops this concept through his mind, in which is directly rooted in his perceptions and/or senses of the world around him. Ideally, the notions constructed by senses embody a rationale of truth in Descartes mind.

He argued that one cannot be sure about the external and internal reality. He wanted to discover if dreaming and being awake is or isn’t the same content. Descartes could not identify a sign or clue to determine if one is dreaming or awake. He believed that things can seem realistic to him while he is asleep. He stated that it can be skeptic enough to believe everything could be false and everything could be generated and monitored by a dream.

Rene Descartes argues that since he is capable of being deceived, therefore knows that he is a “thinking thing” (Descartes 65). First, Descartes questions the existence of everything, he begins to doubt if anything is real. After this, he continues by addressing beliefs that rest on his senses, questioning things such as his dreams and how his senses delude him during his sleep. He then continues addressing how the truths of arithmetic and geometry may not be immune to radical doubt. Although the truths of arithmetic and geometry seem so concrete, Descartes continues by supposing that there may exist an “evil genius” who “has employed all his energy to deceive me[him]” (Descartes 65).

For example, a rock can exist all by itself. This indicates that Descartes proposed that God if he wanted could create a world of beings that could exist all by itself. Therefore what he means to say is that if the mind and body are really distinct, they could exist all by themselves without being dependant on each other. 

Although he has changed a bit in his stance from his books like Discourse and Meditations which has versions like the First, the Second, the Sixth and so on, he was still critiqued by two of his successors, Nicolas Malebranche and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz. Malebranche developed an internal critique of Descartes theory of the mind.

In his sixth and final meditation of Meditations on First Philosophy, Descartes concludes his discussion on the overarching topic of the metaphysics. While this is the concluding piece of this writing, Descartes spends most of this meditation discussing two major arguments, the argument for the existence of the physical world, and the argument for mind-body dualism. Descartes begins by seeking to prove the existence of the physical world. His argument starts with asserting that he is aware of the faculty in him that is for receiving and analyzing sensory details, a faculty that would not exist without some sort of stimulation, whether that stimulus be internal or external. Furthermore, he states that the source of the sensory stimulus cannot

Descartes philosophy on Methodic Doubt and his theory on beings stands as the foundations to Husserl and Heidegger 's phenomenology 's, they are taken by Descartes philosophy in a positive but yet critical way, we find Descartes to have a standing position in each of these philosophers ' phenomenology ' s. In this essay, I will discuss Descartes standing in the phenomenological works Husserl and Heidegger by examining where within their work did they get influenced by Descartes as well as examining the role Descartes played in their work. Rene Descartes was a Rationalist believing that all knowledge is based on reason. He came to the acknowledgement that all the beliefs he thought to be true, were true on the basis that their truth came