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Descartes' Fifth Meditation

Descartes originally asserted that there was only one thing which he could see as certain--his own existence. He later came to see that there were certain innate ideas in the mind, one of which was the idea of God. In his argument in the fifth Meditation, he stated that he could produce in his mind the idea of God just as he could the ideas of shape and number so that he should accord the idea of the existence of God the same certainty he accords mathematics. In the passage under discussion, Descartes states that because he cannot conceive of God except as existing, it follows that existence is inseparable from God. The existence of God is what determines this. Descartes is not free to think of God without existence, for existence is a supreme perfection and God is a supreme being. The mere fact that Descartes can conceive of God as existing also means that he cannot conceive of God as not existing, for God would then not be a perfect being. Descartes' argument is a variation on that offered centuries before by St. Anselm of Canterbury, who stated that conceiving of God was to conceive of something than which nothing greater can be conceived, and such a thing cannot exist in the understanding alone.

An objection is raised to this argument by Caterus. He notes that any statement "X exists" includes both "x" and "existence." The two are embodied in this statement essentially, for neither element can be taken away without the complex changing to something else. Caterus says that the distinct knowledge of God does not compel either element in this composite to exist unless it is assumed that the composite itself exists. He points out that even if one has distinct knowledge of a supreme being, and even if the supreme being includes existence as an essential part of the concept, it still does not follow that the existence is real unless it is assumed that the supreme being exists. The proof is a tautology, leading in a circl...

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Descartes' Fifth Meditation. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 21:41, March 28, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1701645.html