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A 3 page essay that discusses Rene Descartes' arguments on the existence of God as outlined in his Meditation III from Meditations on First Philosophy. Drawing on what he intuits to be true of his own mind and perception, Descartes arrives at the conclusion that God's existence is undeniable. Bibliography lists 3 sources.
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3 pages (~225 words per page)
File: D0_khdegod2.rtf
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36). Descartes philosophy did more than any other to redirect philosophy toward conclusions based on empirical study (Grafton 36). In his famous work Meditations on First Philosophy, Descartes considers the
existence of God in Meditation III. Drawing on what he intuits to be true of his own mind and perception, Descartes arrives at the conclusion that Gods existence is undeniable.
In the meditations preceding Meditation III, Descartes argued that the compendium of human knowledge that he had acquired thus far in his life could not be trusted, since that
knowledge was based on sensory information, which he showed to be unreliable. Therefore, Descartes comes to the conclusion that his own mind is the only thing of which he
can be sure. As he begins Meditation III, Descartes describes himself as "a thing that thinks." While Descartes grants that what he perceives or imagines may be nothing apart
from himself, he is nevertheless assured that his perceptions, his "modes of thought," reside within him. From this, Descartes proceeds to argue that an idea is an effect, that
something outside of the mind caused that effect. For example, the idea of a stone originates from the perception of a stone. Since ideas are effects, Descartes stipulates that the
cause of the effect must possess as much reality as the effect. Furthermore, Descartes asserts that any cause must have as much perfection as its effect. The idea
of God, he reasons, must come into being in a similar manner. Therefore, the cause of his idea, i.e. God, must possess as much reality and perfection has his idea
of God, which is the effect. Therefore, God must exist. In other words, the "cause of the idea...must be as real as the idea" (Frost 115). Descartes reasons that his
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