DOMALAON, SHARENYL M.

AB-Philosophy 2

History of Western Philosophy

Descartes’ on Existence of God:

René Descartes Meditation on Philosophy

A Critique Paper

In Philosophy there had been different ideologies that shaped and influence our modern
thoughts, baffled as well as astonished our mind, and tore the last cell of our brain for us
Philosophy student. In this context one of the most interesting and baffling work that we have
tackled is the “Meditations on Philosophy”, René Descartes most notable philosophical work,
published during 1641. Descartes was born in France, known as a Philosopher, scientist and
mathematician, and he is considered as the Father of Modern Philosophy. Descartes logically
established and presented his ideas on Meditation, he uses the Universal Methodic doubt, a
way of searching for certainty by systematically though tentatively doubting everything. The
meditation highly emphasized how Descartes used doubt to critically dissect all his ideas to
arrive at certainty.

The meditation begun in Descartes reflecting on the things he considered true for years,
he doubted all those opinions and false statement because for him these should not be the basis
of knowledge. He doubted the accuracy and truthfulness of our perception, to him we are not
certain of the things that we perceive. He also proposed the dream argument, he foretold he
often have perception even in his dream, and argued that there’s no difference between reality
and dream. Although there are certain knowledge such as in Mathematics (1+1=2), but this is
also subject into doubt because of the fallibility of man. Also how can he be sure that he is not
being deceive or controlled to arrive at such conclusion? That there is some powerful evil
genius that implanted such ideas to his mind. Ergo, everything that he assumes about the world,
would be false. Therefore, to avoid such thing, he is to suspend his judgment. However, despite
all the doubt there is one thing that is certain, that he exists, because how can he doubt himself
if the “I” don’t exist in the first place, therefore the act of doubting himself implies that he
exists.

At this juncture, he can’t rely on the truth of the existence of the self, when it is based on
his trustworthiness of his reasoning because his reasoning ability is also subject into his own
methodic doubt. There is where the idea of Powerful being entered the discussion, one of the
highlights of Descartes’ meditation would be proving the existence of God. In the third
meditation, Of God: that He exists, he writes:

“Hence there remains only the idea of God, concerning which we must
consider whether it is something which cannot have proceeded from me myself.
By the name God I understand a substance that is infinite [eternal, immutable],
independent, all-knowing, all-powerful, and by which I myself and everything
else, if anything else does exist, have been created. Now all these
characteristics are such that the more diligently I attend to them, the less do they
appear capable of proceeding from me alone; hence, from what has been
already said, we must conclude that God necessarily exists.”

In this context, the idea of God existence which he prove through ontological argument, a
priori reasoning, supposed I have an idea of a perfect being, it’s necessary for that perfect
being to exist, otherwise it is not a perfect being , therefore that infinitely being exists. The first,
and best-known, ontological argument was proposed by St. Anselm of Canterbury in the 11th
century C.E. In his Proslogion, St. Anselm claims to derive the existence of God from the
concept of a being than which no greater can be conceived. St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa.
Criticises an argument which somehow descends from St. Anselm and Spinoza to name a
few. In Descartes version it is known because of it’s simplicity, in which he further
discussed the argument in his Fifth Meditation:Of the essence of material things, and, again, of
God, that He exists.

Descartes argued that God existence is self evident as the mathematical truth,
Nonetheless, this idea of existence of God can be refuted on his own Universal Methodic doubt,
supposed that God exists, but how can he be sure that it is true? And if the idea of a perfect
God is doubtful, then how can he logically prove the existence of God? Therefore existence of
God is doubtful as well as all other remains doubtful. In addition, Most of Descartes’ critique
said that he used the existence of God as a safety net to his philosophical dead end.
 Essays, UK. (November 2018). Rene Descartes Meditations Critique. Accessed:
September 29, 2019. Retrieved from
https://www.ukessays.com/essays/philosophy/a-critique-on-rene-descartes-meditations-philoso
phy-essay.php?vref=1

Lumen. Introduction to Philosophy. Chapter 6: Philosophy of Religion: Ontological

https://courses.lumenlearning.com/sanjacinto-philosophy/chapter/ontological-argument-criticis
ms/

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (June 18, 2001 Rev. Sept 2015). Descartes’
Ontological Argument . September 30 , 2019. Retrieved from
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/descartes-ontological/

Descartes, R. Meditations On First Philosophy (1641). September 30 , 2019. Retrieved