Fifth Meditation
In the "Fifth Meditation" by Rene Descartes, he makes a case for the existence of God. He goes on to give reason to prove his argument that to exist is to believe in God for with out God we would not exist. Descartes gives the analogy of a mountain and a valley, pointing out that if a person believes that a mountain exists they cannot deny the existence of a valley, as stated in this quote: "From the fact that I cannot think of a mountain without a valley, it does not follow that a mountain and valley exist anywhere, but simply that a mountain and a valley, whether they exist or not, are mutually inseparable." Descartes states the argument here, "But from the fact that I cannot think of God except as existing, it follows that existence is inseparable from God, and hence that he really exists." Then he goes on to explain his reasons for the existence of God, "It is not that my thought makes it so, or imposes any necessity of the thing itself, namely the existence of God, which determines my thinking in this respect. For I am not free to think of God without existence." He is saying, without God he would not exist, and if he does not exist he cannot think therefore God must exist if he has the ability to think. H
Part Two: Descartes works seem to be his own ambitions, and desires to achieve deep understanding about the nature of everything including God, the physical world, and himself. It is true that if he believes distinctly that God exists, ( meaning that in his mind he unmistakably perceives that God exists ) there will be no arguments that can persuade him that God does not exist. e supports his arguments further, as we see here, Descartes gives his conclusion, it states, "I have perceived that God exists, and at the same time I have understood that everything else depends on him, and that he is no deceiver; and I have drawn the conclusion that everything which I clearly and distinctly perceive is of necessity true. God is the meaning of existence, and because he exists Descartes exists. Descartes argues of the existence of a supreme being and he supports his claims by saying that because he distinctly perceives God that God exists. " He is providing an argument to prove that God is not something fictitious that exists only in his thoughts. triangles three angle equal 180 degrees), but if there have been occasions where he regarded certain things as true; but afterward found them to be false, would these occasions be valid objections? Descartes says no, because none of these occurrences were things that he regarded as unmistakable true. This is a claim, not to argue the existence of God, nor to give reason to disprove Gods existence; rather to critique the arguments Descartes has given for the existence of God. " He is saying, first of all, that everything that he unmistakably understands is true; he clearly understands God, therefore God exists! To support his conclusion he gives the argument, "even if I am no longer attending to the arguments which led me to judge that this is true, as long as I remember that I clearly and distinctly perceived it, there are no counter-arguments which can be adduced to make me doubt it. In his Meditations, Descartes tries to discover certain, unquestionable foundations for knowledge. He asks what objections can be raised, and then gives objections, "That the way I am made makes me prone to frequent error? To this objection he gives his theory, "But I now know that I am incapable of error in those cases where my understanding is transparently clear. He is searching for absolute certainty, and does this by subjecting everything to doubt. " Descartes believes that because he unmistakably perceives God there is no way to disprove the existence of God. " Although this argument makes sense, Descartes never gives any concrete facts to prove the existence of God. Descartes was educated at the Jesuit college of La Fleche in Anjou.
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