Descartes 3rd meditation, Proving God 1/23/2008 1:48:00 PM Principle of Adequate Reality- Something has to be at least as real at the perception of its reality As applied to God, Descartes has a great perception of god, that god is perfect. And under the Principle of Adequate Reality, God’s reality has to have AT LEAST as much reality as someone’s perception of god; if that perception is perfection, then only a perfect being (god) can exist. God MUST be an innate idea, Descartes cannot come up with the perception of perfection (being he himself imperfect), unless there is actually a god (the reality of at least that much perception) o Descartes argues that the Innate idea of god came from god “stamping us with it (the innate idea of god) like a craftsman” Principle of Sufficient Reason- something “…cannot begin to exist unless it is produced b something which contains either formally or eminently everything to be found in the stone.”-Descartes EVERY CAUSE HAS AN EFFECT IE fire is made of combustion/fuel/oxygen There must exist these things for fire to exist, there must by “physical” reason for something existence (there cant be a randomly appearing cat, because there is an effect with no cause) Descartes PSR with parents My parents caused me, their parents caused them, however that regression cannot be infinite, there must have been an original source, and to Descartes, it was god. Descartes 4th, Truth and Falsity 1/23/2008 1:48:00 PM Descartes observes that if there is an omnipotent, perfect god, then he, the creation of that god, must also be unable to error. This logic must be flawed when Descartes make mistakes. A benevolent god would not intentionally install a judgment method that would lead Descartes astray. So… Adequate Reality god must exist if perfect god exists, I am infallible and my judgment and perception should also be infallible If my ideas are infallible then god exists because I believe it god must exist… …this is called the CARTESIAN CIRCLE Descartes attempts to relieve himself from this circle by arguing that the proof of god is simply a method by which to trust intuition, and the “proof” need not to be revisited every time a “clear and distinct” perception (intuition) presents itself. Error by humans are caused by the free will that leads us to mistakes. Will> Judgment, that allows us to judge things we don’t “clearly and distinctly understand” o Why didn’t god fix that loophole and make us perfect Because perhaps to create perfection in the universe, we must be capable of mistakes.