Descartes Discourse Method Part 1 Essay

In his paper, Descartes was trying to find the source of his idea of God in order to prove that God exists or not. Descartes states that all of his ideas come from three different sources. All of which are either innate, caused from the outside or invented by himself (Descartes p. 10). Descartes states that innate ideas are ideas which come from our very own nature (Descartes p.10). One can conclude that we receive these type of ideas by the time we were born. The second type of ideas originates from the outside of ourselves, meaning we receive it by our senses, such as heat or noise or even the size of a certain object. Descartes mentions two examples of this type of idea in his paper. One of them being the idea of heat or warmth coming from a fire (Descartes p. 11). And another one is his idea of the small size of the sun which he receives from his senses (Descartes p.11). The last one is ideas that we invented ourselves. These ideas are the ones we created with our own mind. Some examples, as Descartes mentions in his paper, would be sirens or hippogriffs (Descartes p. 10).

René Descartes uses Discourse on Method to explain his view that god exists and that human nature consists of the body and soul, which both interact but can exist without one another. He believed that the body occupies space but has no mental properties. René believed that it was in fact the soul or mind that does the thinking or sleeping. Using animals as an example, he highlights in the text how humans unlike animals possess a soul.

In Rene Descartes Discourse on Methods and Meditations on First Philosophy Descartes aims to find the absolute truth of the world, and if he cannot know what is certainly true he want to know for certain that nothing is true. He starts by assuming that all his options are false. He establishes that everything that he takes to be true could be false and therefore he nothing he knows to be true he can believe for certain. He establishes that for the purpose of his meditations that god only exists to deceive him and nothing is certain around him. He then determines that none of his senses are sensing real things, and rather everything he sense is deception of the world. He continues his mediations to establish that the physical world is not real

The main idea of cartesian dualism is that one’s ability to clearly and distinctly conceive of mind and body warrants the inference to the notion that minds and bodies are separable. More specifically, Cartesian dualism is based on the premise that if an individual can “clearly and distinctly understand one thing apart from other”, than that is sufficient evidence for him to conclude “that the two things are distinct”. Using this intuition, Descartes concludes that his soul is distinct from his body, since he has a clear and distinct idea of himself (his own soul) as well as a clear and distinct idea of his body. He adds the assertion that it is possible for him to exist without his body, since it is an extended, non-thinking thing. According to Cartesian dualism, minds are thinking things and are not located in physical space.

Descartes presents us, first, with the idea of an infinite being—an idea of God—to the existence of God himself. One of Descartes’s main claims is that any idea or judgment he “perceives very clearly and distinctly is true." He argues that he "clearly and distinctly perceives" that he exists, and that he is a thinking thing. First, Descartes discovers the idea of God, there must be a God on which

Descartes has the idea of God and questions “For how would it be possible that I should know that I doubt and desire, that is to say, that something is lacking to me, and that I am not quite perfect, unless I had within me some idea of a Being more perfect than myself, in comparison with which I should recognize the deficiencies of my nature?” (67). The idea of God has infinite and perfect objective reality , so it must be caused by a being with infinite and perfect formal reality. Descartes notes that he is a finite being and does not have the ability to come up with the idea of an infinite being.

Descartes’ thought that God is the reason why it is possible to understand all other ideas and that

What he means is that since we cannot grasp the idea of something that is infinite, should be enough reason to believe that there is something else like God existing. God in known for knowing all things and creating the earth and everything else we know of. Which means that we did not create ourselves and don’t have the power to which gives us a reason to know that God is the creator even though we don’t see him. There are many attributes about God and one would be perfection. There is nothing wrong with God and he is the only thing that is perfect. Descartes mentions that there is nothing more perfect than God, or even as perfect, and that nothing can be thought of or imagined to be. Just because we cannot physically see God, it does not mean God does not exist for he is in our thoughts, which means there is existence. Descartes also says that it is more to exist than to not exist. If God does not exist then how does he have properties connecting him with existing? Therefore he must exist. We may think of many different ideas that we have never seen, like Descartes example of a winged horse. Though we have never seen one, we can still have a thought or idea of one, which means that we can have an idea of something even though we don’t physically know they are real. Our

In René Descartes’s Discourse on Method, “seeking the true method for arriving at knowledge” (p. 10) is the goal in which he states in the beginning of discourse. With that end in mind, by analyzing proofs that Descartes finds it can be seen if this was achieved. The proof that God exist is a defining moment in the discourse since God is continually referenced for origin of true knowledge. The reference to God does not only set the stage for further proofs on knowledge, but as the original truth, all of what Descartes finds real can be related back to God. This idea will be key in order to keep the excising of the method going when Descartes falls stagnant when relating to the external world (p. 19). Nevertheless, his two proofs of the existence of God affect the entire discourse either logical or structurally. His reasoning for the both proofs is in someway exposed to either an assumption or a logical mistake. While the need for two proofs reflects negatively on the way the theme is structured through out the entire discourse. Inherently, the way these issue are dealt with will show the proficiency of Descartes ‘s method. God’s existence is a fundamental idea in the Discourse on Method, since Descartes’s method is unsuccessful to prove this idea with out any error; the entire message of the discourse suffers.

Descartes knew how to catch the eye of the reader while he was introducing an argument. He would start of by giving the reader an idea or telling a story to help guide his audience throughout the introduction of a new argument. On part three of his book, Descartes brings in his opinions of the morals and maxims. “And finally, just as it is not enough, before beginning to rebuild the house where one is living, simply to pull it down” . This introduction goes on to talk about the architectural idea of building a house. The

the "discourse on the method" by Descartes is different from Marlowe's "doctor Faustus" because Descartes actually believes in God and does not do anything to offend him unlike the character in the "doctor Faustus" who sold his soul to the devil. another way would be is that the character from the "doctor Faustus" plays cruel jokes and uses satire to make fun of people unlike the "discourse on method" Descartes book is very different from Marlowe's in that way but another way they are the same is that Descartes is trying to improve the way we think just like Marlowe. of course on is less aggressive than the

In his mind, Descartes conceives different ideas of things. Those ideas may be “situated outside” of his mind or within his thoughts (Beardsley p.44). For Descartes, God is an infinite substance, “independent, all-knowing, all-powerful…” from which all things proceed (p.48). In other word, God is the most perfect being from whom all other things proceed.

Descartes gives an example of a stone, stating that the stone can’t be made by anything that doesn’t contain everything found in a stone. Basically the premise is based on a more general one that, it is not possible for something to come from nothing. Descartes then applies the Causal Adequacy Principal to ideas. Descartes claims that just in the case of how objects must contain at least as much reality as what created it ,then the cause of an idea must contain at least as much reality as the idea itself. So if an idea I represents some object O as having property P then the cause of I must have as much F as O is represented as having. Descartes puts these premises together and arrives at the fact that God exists in the following way. Since my idea of God represents God has being infinite and perfect whatever causes this idea must be infinite and perfect as well. Descartes then realizes that he cannot be the cause of his idea, of God, because he is not perfect or infinite. The definition of God as being “the perfect being” shows that the only thing that can cause this idea of the perfect being is God himself. Therefore a being that is perfect and infinite exists. Since an infinite perfect being exist God must exist. Descartes has arrived at a conclusion and has proved his argument. There were a few smaller argument that Descartes offers throughout the third meditation. One of them suggest that it is not possible to exist without the existence

Descartes argues that because he is capable of thought, it is therefore certain that he exists at least as a ‘thinking thing’. At the premise, Descartes states that he will only consider something to be true and certain if there is no shred of doubt, for any doubt “will be enough to justify the rejection” of its certainty (Med.1). He then discusses the senses, from which everything he had accepted as true and certain come from. He observes that the “senses sometimes [mislead] us” (Med. 1). For example, when we dream we can’t differentiate whether we are in a dream or awake. Descartes then considers mathematics, where it “remains true that two plus three make five” (Med. 1). He then argues what if some “evil genius” is making everything

Rene Descartes’ main purpose is to attempt to prove that the mind that is the soul or the thinking thing is distinct and is separate from the body. This thinking thing was the core of himself, which doubts, believes, reasons, feels and thinks. Descartes considers the body to be an extended unthinking thing; therefore it is possible that one may exist without the other. This view is known as mind-body dualism. He believes that what he is thinking in his mind is what God created and instilled in him. Descartes outlines many arguments to support and prove his claims of his discoveries. He states that because he can think, his mind exists. This is known as the Cogito, which is the first existential principal of