A Critical Examination of Rene Descartes’ Trademark Argument

In the six meditations written by Rene Descartes there are numerous principals and theories proposed, among them is the Trademark argument for the existence of God, which states that we all have an innate idea of an infinitely perfect God and the cause of the idea could only be a perfect God. Descartes states that there are degrees to reality and what is less real may not be caused by something, which is given more reality, (that the cause must pre-contain the reality of it’s effect). Descartes dubs this the pre-containment principle. He then goes on to say that all things must have a cause and that all causes may affect another thing, (deemed the principle of universal causation). So using all this Descartes states that he has an idea of God, and the only possible cause for this idea is God himself, because only God contains enough formal reality to cause the idea with that much objective reality.

First off how do we know that the idea of god is in fact innate, and what of the fact that there are many different versions of that same idea? If you were to ask a person who had never had contact with another human being before exactly who or what God is, I believe

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So if the idea changes or fully takes shape as you grow to maturity maybe we are !

simply unable to fully realize the idea until latter in life. I my self took this problem on and found it rough going to say the least. If that is the case it still doesn’t explain why the same initial idea differs from one individual to the next?

There are yet more pitfalls to Descartes’ argument through his somewhat fuzzy logic. A further objection to Descartes' proof is that even though a necessary attribute of a mountain is that it be adjacent to a valley, it doesn't follow that any mountains or valleys exist. If the idea of God changes that would seem to suggest that the idea is either incomplete or that it is learned through experience. That is, we can separate his existence from his essential attributes. So as it stands (and as long as remains) an unbreakable circle the argument, as a single standing statement is unsupported by any real ground but that of it’s conclusion.

The last and possibly the most damaging criticism is that Descartes allows by his reason, what other philosophers have dubbed as the Cartesian circle. I am certain of whatever I clearly and distinctly perceive only because I am certain that God exists.

The obvious problem with this is that for God’s existence to be proven from this he must exist, so this in turn proves nothing. I like hundreds of more educated philosophers before me was unable to break this circle with complete certainty and unquestionable reason. And it appears that those forms tend to be biased on your upbringing. Since, according to some critics, we can conceive of God as not existing, then existence is not a necessary attribute of this idea.

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Approximate Word count = 1008
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

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