Descartes and Skepticism Essay

Rene Descartes was a great scientist, mathematician and philosopher. He was cognise for his extensive work on skepticism, and in particular a piece c wholeed conjectures on First Philosophy (written in 1641) which is mute widely used by red-brick philosophers. In this publication, Descartes aim was to demonstrate that a persons soul is eternal and that graven image exists. He explicates in surmisal One that it is executable to question the being of all things in conjecture two he goes on to give details regarding the existence of the disposition and the soul.In the Third Meditation he gives crinkles of proof of divinity fudges existence and in Meditation Four he explains the difference amidst truth and error. In the Fifth Meditation Descartes provides further arguments to prove the existence of sodding(a)ion and in the Sixth and final meditation he brings it all together as he demonstrates how knowledge of the judgement preempt be doorkeeperd by ne plus ultra and accordingly validates the knowledge we be possessed of of physiological world. (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2010).This essay will explain Descartes argument of the existence of immortal with proper(postnominal) reference to the Third Meditation discussed in the class handout- Descartes and the problem of Skepticism. Meditation - holyions Existence In the Third Meditation, subtitled On paragons existence, Descartes is certain that he is a thinking thing (pg 142) and sets out to prove divinitys Existence. There were two major(ip) standpoints noned in his argument, though they were piece to be closely linked. Firstly, he tackles the thinker that his ingest existence and thoughts mustiness(prenominal)iness have come from somewhere or something.He goes on to explain that the thought he has of idol is one of an eternal, infinite, omniscient, omnipotent, reason of all things (pg 143). As a result, Descartes argues that the conception of idol must in that res pectfore be furthest more complex than his mind completely can perceive- since his persuasion of God is that of an infinite, perfect world and Descartes himself is a finite existence lacking enough formal realness to create such an theme on his suffer will. Put simply, Descartes believes that the cerebration of God could not have been created in his aver limited mind and he establishes that God must be the originator of his thoughts and at that placefore God exists.Secondly, Descartes battles with the idea that his existence must have a cause. He discusses the mingled possibilities that skill have caused his existence including that he readiness have created himself he might have always existed his p arnts created him that he was created by something less benevolent and perfect than God and lastly, that it was God who created him. Descartes takes on an elimination run to figure out which one of these possibilities are likely true. He discusses that he could not have created himself because as he says I would have given myself every perfection (pg 146).Next he dismisses the idea that he always existed simply because as he describes that he is a dependent being that needs to be continually sustain by another. Descartes establishes that the idea of his parents being his creator only reintroduces the same problem regarding their own existence. He then thought of the scuttle of a less than perfect God being his creator- but he argues that the idea of perfection that exists in his mind could not have originated from a non-perfect being.With this established, Descartes concludes that there must be a perfect God who is the cause of his existence and his perfect idea of God. In analysis of Descartes position, the observation is do that the basis of his argument is causal reasoning. This is shown when he suggests that there must be a cause of the idea of a perfect God and that this perfect idea must come from God himself. In my own reflection, I thou ght that living a predominantly Christian society might be the cause of my own idea of God. I have learnt all that I know about God from my parents and by extension the society.It therefore follows, that my parents idea of God might have come from their parents too, whose idea somewhere along the line came from the church- which is also made up of men who has parents. Descartes argument supports that at the end of this causal chain, there has to be a first cause, which is God. Since there is no direct of evidence proving or disproving the existence of God, the belief in his existence is widely accepted today, and the search for such a proof would always be a highly debatable and polemical topic.While there is still divergency over Descartes argument as to whether or not God exists, it is generally hold that Gods existence cannot be proved through the capacity of the mind and therefore we rely on such concepts as skepticism and reasoning to guide what we choose to believe of God. References * Smith, K. (2010, September 20). Descartes life-time and works. Retrieved October 11, 2011from http//plato. stanford. edu/entries/descartes-works * Class Handout- Descartes and The Problem of Skepticism.