What Is Descartes Argument For God's Existence

From the various books he’s written to the pension granted from the King of France, renowned philosopher and mathematician René Descartes accomplished many extravagant achievements in his lifetime. Descartes invented analytical geometry and established the foundation of skepticism as part of the scientific method. René Descartes’ contributions to the creation of the scientific method and his various books on metaphysics and reason allow him to stand out, but Descartes’ geometric theorems and theories on existence and truth are what made him one of the most influential and important philosopher and mathematicians in history.

Humans are finite substances so they cannot come up with the ideas of infinite substances unless it were given to them by an infinite substance. Descartes continues that while we advance gradually each day these attributes could never exist within us because we are only potentially perfect whereas God is actually perfect. Furthermore, Descartes argues that only God could be the author of his being because if it were he or his parent’s other finite substances that authored his being then he would not have wants or doubts because he would have bestowed upon himself every perfection imaginable to a finite being. Therefore, God exists because Descartes could not have thought of God because he is a finite substance thus the idea of God must have come from an infinite substance.

I have an idea of a perfect being; it must contain in reality all the

Secondly, to come up with the second proof of Gods existence, Descartes thought that the power and action that is needed to preserve something is capable of creating something new. He argued that there must be as much power in the cause just as it is in the effect. According to the philosophical writings of Descartes, upon knowing that he did not have power to preserve his own existence because he was just a thinking thing; Descartes concluded that the power must have come from outside him (Descartes, Cottingham and Murdoch 26) And since he is a thinking thing, he claims that the one who created him must also be a thinking thing, possessing all the ideas and attributes of god. In addition, he observed that his parents could not be responsible for creating and preserving his life. Descartes therefore concludes that the one who created him and gave him ideas of a perfect God must be God, therefore God exists.

After giving his first proof for the existence of God Descartes concludes by mentioning that this proof is not always self-evident. When he is absorbed in the world of sensory illusions it is not quite obvious to him that God’s existence can be derived from the idea of God. So to further cement God’s existence Descartes begins his second proof by posing the question of whether he could exist (a thinking thing that possesses the idea of an infinite and perfect god) if God itself did not exist.

Descartes’s attempt to prove the existence of God begins with the argument that he has the clear and distinct idea of God as the “most perfect being and that there must be at least as much reality in the efficient and total cause in the effect of that cause” (40). Therefore, this idea of God can’t be from himself, but its cause must be God. So God exists. In what follows I’ll explain these terms and why the premises seemed true to him.

Rene Descartes decision to shatter the molds of traditional thinking is still talked about today. He is regarded as an influential abstract thinker; and some of his main ideas are still talked about by philosophers all over the world. While he wrote the "Meditations", he secluded himself from the outside world for a length of time, basically tore up his conventional thinking; and tried to come to some conclusion as to what was actually true and existing. In order to show that the sciences rest on firm foundations and that these foundations lay in the mind and not the senses, Descartes must begin by bringing into doubt all the beliefs that come to him by the senses. This is done in the first of six

You can find Descartes’ proof of the existence of God in the Third Meditation. Although to understand this argument you have to look at his previous meditation where he begins to build his argument with the notion that in order for him to think, he must exist. From this observation, Descartes’ sees that the idea of his existence is very clear and distinct in his mind. Based upon this clarity and the fact that he has just determined his own

Descartes makes an attempt to prove God’s existence throughout his third meditation. In his first premise he states that he has an idea of an infinitely perfect being. He uses the Principle of Sufficient reason to advance his argument; it states that everything must have a reason or cause. This put forth his second premise; that the idea of god must have a

Descartes in

Descartes is a very famous and well-known philosopher and mathematician from France. It is said that he is the first modern philosopher or father of modern philosophy. One of his greatest accomplishments was finding a way to connect algebra and geometry. He found a way to use algebraic equations in solving geometric related questions. He is almost more known for coming up with the saying “cogito ergo sum” which translates to “I think, therefore I am.”

Descartes believes that God's existence is clear and distinct. God exists because the thought of God is derived from a "completely clear and distinct" idea from within his being (which he concedes is a thinking being). Having come from distinct thoughts, the idea of God can therefore never be considered a falsity. From this very distinct idea of God comes everything else that one grasps distinctly and clearly.

Throughout Descartes live he contributed many important ideas, including, about algebra, he explained in detail that how algebraic equations can be through shapes. He is widely acclaimed for being the first mathematician who started modern geometry that later developed calculus and analysis. His major contribution is that he created the Cartesian coordinate system. The Cartesian system explained the algebraic equations through geometrical shapes. He “invented the convention of representing unknowns in equations by x, y, and z”. It was his work of calculus that was later used by Newton thus evolving a new branch of mathematics. Besides, that, he also invented rule of signs to establish the positive and negative roots of polynomial. He is known

     Once Descartes proved his own existence and that of God's, he proceeded on to the sciences. He showed that mathematics was the truest of all sciences. Descartes studied math intensely at the Jesuit school. His zeal for the subject continued into his later life. Gradually, he became more and more disgusted with the current system of math. He sought to revise it and ended up revolutionizing it. Math today is based upon the Cartesian system. Descartes is called the "Father of Modern Mathematics" for several reasons. His major contribution is the application of algebra to geometry. In his treatise, Geometry, Descartes reveals his analytic geometry. Analytic geometry allows any curve to be addressed from an algebraic view by means of a coordinate system. This is taught to all

In the Discourse on the Method, Descartes laments that as a young man he was forced to conclude at the end of all his studies that “there was no doctrine [i.e., teaching or body of knowledge] in the world that was of the sort that I had previously been led to hope for.” In your essay, I would like you to discuss the nature of the body of knowledge he was looking for a s well as the place of the cogito (that is, the utterance “I think, therefore I am”) in it. You may discuss his criticism of the learning of the time, but do not spill much ink over it; the focus of your paper should be on the new science he is seeking, not the old.