Descartes And God

Section: Philosophy Essays

Only by granting the validity and truth of the principle of contradiction beforehand, can his existence be established as an objective fact. That is exactly what he does. The same line of reasoning applies to his proof of God's existence and infinite perfection. Descartes rejection of the principle of contradiction invalidates his arguments because, as long as this principle is not established and accepted, he could never be sure whether it would be possible for God to exist and not exist at the same time. Similarly, Descartes would have to remain doubtful as to whether God could be veracious and not veracious, deceiving and not deceiving unless the principle of contradiction was taken for granted before Descartes begins to prove God's existence. Descartes does not accept this principle of contradiction throughout his reasoning. This is a glaring inconsistency in his arguments. Descartes further conducts his inquiry into the existence of God with the supposition that he doubts the principles of sufficiency and causality. Unfortunately, he uses these principles before he has proven their validity. Descartes believes that God is an infinitely perfect being that could not have originated in our minds because an idea such as this would exceed the causality of the mind, as the mind is less perfect than the content of the idea itself. Consequently, the idea had to be produced by God himself otherwise there would be no sufficient reason for the presence of such an idea in the mind. Clearly, Descartes uses the principles of sufficient reason and causality in demonstrating the existence of God, even though he doubts their validity. Therefore, if he lets these principles stand as doubtful, his entire argument is nullified by doubt. If he accepts them as valid prior to establishing their validity, he is acting in contrary to his fundamental doubt doctrine. In either case, he makes the existence of God impossible. Descartes could not prove God's existence consistently as he could only do so through the use of a reasoning process, which, according to his own principles, was essentially doubtful in its validity. The only thing he could ever be certain of was his own existence. This too, strictly speaking, he should have doubted, because he had doubted the principle of contradiction and the testimony of his own consciousness. If Descartes had been consistent, he would have aligned with the skeptics because his universal doubt left him no other choice. Universal doubt, therefore, is a flawed course in pursuing an understanding of human knowledge and the existence of God. God cannot exist using Descartes arguments. Complete doubt cannot lead to an understanding of human knowledge. Words: 1327

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