reduced to a few self-evident (clear and distinct) ideas which he feels are beyond disputeùself-hood, the soul, God (and God only as an idea, not the fact that an all-powerful being exists, which Descartes feels can be demonstrated). As Descartes is careful to explain in his Objections Urged by Certain Men of Learning Against the Preceding Meditations; With the Author's Replies, this does not mean that such ideas are constantly in our view but only that we have the ability or faculty of calling up these ideas by the fact that we are human beings. Despite the circumscribed nature of Cartesian innate ideas (as compared to Plato's freewheeling and all-encompassing doctrine), Descartes remains adamant that we possess such a "faculty of summonin
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