RENE DESCARTES PROOF OF GOD’S EXISTENCE: ACRITICAL EXPOSITION Essay

The skepticism of god is a perennial subject of consult in the history of philosophical scholarship and can be fit(p) in nearly all the seasons of philosophy. The subject however occupies a telephone exchange space in the medieval epoch that was characterized by spiritual thinkers. The moot is largely between dickens schools of estimate. in that location be those who opine that on that point is no much(prenominal) entity as idol. To such(prenominal) thinkers, the question of immortal does non amount to some(prenominal) liaison but is largely a product of human imagination. On the separate(a) hand, there are accepted group of thinkers who insist that idol is a humanity that exist and essential be given repayable consideration. Thus, the onus lies on the one who affirms the populace of deity to explain who or what this divinity is and to prove his instauration. The subject of graven image may find creation difficult to explain be practise the term theol ogy does not refer to any physical entity in the universe. Rene Descartes who is widely revered as the father of novel philosophy affirmed the origination of divinity fudge and professorfered two airs for the earthly concern of God. numerous scholars ease up bore their minds on the question of God, but our aim in this paper is to examine the various ramifications of Descartes proof of Gods organism. To reach egress this aim, our exposition shall follow this outlineLife and works of DescartesWho is God?The historical trajectory of the problem of GodThe cogito a background to the Cartesian prof of Gods existence Descartes proof of Gods existenceCriticisms of the Cartesian proof of Gods existenceEvaluation endLife and works of Rene DescartesDescartes is the number one major philosophical thinker of the recent period and the father of modern philosophy. He was born in La Haye, a small tget near Tours in France on the tertiary of March he received a Jesuit education at the Jesuit college of La fleche in Anjou, one of the best schools of his era. Upon completion of his studies, he went to Holland where he joined the army in 1618. The following year, he traveled to Germany where he began to develop his brains concerning how knowledge should be acquired.Descartesreturned to France in 1628 but concisely returned to Holland where he remained until 1649, when he went to Sweden at the request of Queen Christina to come and give instruction her in philosophy and knowledge in general. He is said to permit died of pneumonia on the 11th of February 1650. Descartes has many achievements to his name, he invented the analytic geometry and the Cartesian adjust system named after him. His major works include The Rules for the Direction of the wit (1628), the world (1629), Discourse on Method (1637), Optics (1637), Meteorology (1637), Meditations on startle Philosophy (1641), Principles of Philosophy (1644) and Passions of the soul (1649). Who is God?Much of the disagreement around proofs of Gods existence is due to different conceptions of God. Classical theism, for instance, characterizes God as a supreme metaphysical creation. Despite extensive musical composition on the nature of God, these classical theists did not believe that God could be defined. They believed that it would be conflicting to the transcendent nature of God if mere domain are able to define him. By contrast, much of Eastern religious thought (chiefly pantheism) presents God as a force inherent in every accessible and conceivable experience. In modern times, the concept of God typically entails a monotheistic, supreme, ultimate, and personal being, as found in the Islamic, Christian and Hebrew traditions. A historical trajectory of the problem of God.Since the ancient epoch of philosophy, philosophers arrive at always grappled with the problem of the existence of God. Thus we shall examine the general posture that the discourse of God assumed before and afte r the orgasm of Descartes. This would properly position us to understand the background from were Descartes emerges. The ancient western sandwich tradition of philosophical discuss of the existence of God began with Plato and Aristotle, who made statements that would like a shot be categorized as cosmological. In the medieval epoch of philosophy, other assertions for the existence of God have been proposed by St. Anselm, who formulated the offset ontological stock Avicena Averroes and Thomas Aquinas, who refined the cosmological reason (the kalam financial statement and the first way, respectively). In the modern period, Descartes, asserts that the existence of a benevolent God is logicallynecessary for the evidence of the senses to be meaningful and Immanuel Kant, also contended that the existence of God can be deduced from the existence of good.The cogito a background to Descartes prof of Gods existence Descartes was skeptical of the knowledge he acquired everyplace the y ears, be set out he thinks that real knowledge requires certainty. To attain certainty, we need a asylum and accordingly, we need a way of building from that earthing to other true statements. Descartes describes his foundation in the first meditation. His starting point is the collection of beliefs. Thus he looks for cubic yard of doubt for certain basic beliefs and having found certain grounds for doubt, all other beliefs based on the basic beliefs will tumble. He rejects beliefs acquired through sense perception on the ground that we could be dreaming. He further rejects a priori beliefs for example mathematical truths on grounds that there could be an evil deceiver who is so powerful and possibly obligated for making him conceptualise of these beliefs. Having doubted his beliefs, Descartes discovers that he exists, for even if there is a powerful deceiver, he mustiness exist.The reason for his certainty about this belief is that he is thinking, whether this thinking cons ists of being deceived by the evil deceiver or not. In other to be thinking, he must exist. He avers cogito ego sum-I think, hence I exist. Thus, his existence serves as a model for acquiring other kinds of knowledge. However, Descartes has not totally extricated himself from his self-imposed doubt and to do so, he proves the existence of a God who is not a deceiver. The Cartesian proof of Gods existence.Descartes promptinged two arguments for the existence of God in the meditations, neither is original. The first is a version of the cosmological argument espoused by ancient thinkers and the indorse is a reformulation of Anselms ontological argument the starting point for the two fold argument is his liberate and distinct predilection of God. That is, he infers the existence of God from his root word of God. The causative argument for the existence of GodDescartes first argument can be summarized as an try to prove Gods existence by causal reasoning. He asserts that his idea of God could only have been caused by God. Below is a concise commemorate of his causal argument All effects including ideas are caused by something.There must be at least as much reality in the cause as there is in the effect. I have an idea of God as an in mortal and staring(a) being.The idea of God in my mind is an effect that was caused by something I am exhaustible and im meliorate and thus could not be the cause of the idea of an myriad and sodding(a) God. Only an eternal being could be the cause of such an idea. Therefore, God (an infinite and accurate being) exist.The first effrontery of the causal argument derives from a commonly held belief that has long being a put in in other arguments for the existence of God. The logic behind Descartes second premise can be explained thus, he presupposes a cold mark such as a pot of water cannot become hot unless something else causes that heat. But, the cause must have a high degree as the effect. For it is undoable for one level of reality (the boiling water) to be produced by a cause that is less than the effect (a cold stove). Just as heat water is an effect that requires a cause, so Descartes idea of an infinite and perfect being is an effect or a phenomenon that needs to be accounted for. It is achievable that Descartes could have produced the idea of God himself. But for him, a finite object can only produce another finite object. Hence, Descartes says ordinarily, the idea in his mind does not tell him if there is the existence of any immaterial reality.However, the idea of perfection is unique. If he could not have manufactured it himself, then it will necessarily follow that he is not alone in the world, but that some other thing which is the cause of this idea exist. That thing can only be God therefore, God exists. Descartes further corroborated his argument by demonstrating that his sustained existence requires an adequate cause. Using a discrepancy of his causal argument, he argues that a being such as himself who contains the idea of perfection cannot come from an imperfect cause. In the cause of searching for an rendering for his own sustained existence, he introduces the principle that there cannot be an infinite regress of causes therefore these causes must culminate in an ultimate cause and that cause is God. He conceives God as an infinite substance who is Omniscient, omnipotent, everlasting, unchanging, perfect, and the quotation of all things. The ontological argument.In the meditation, Descartes employed a version of Anselms ontological argument to buttress the existence of God. Descartes begins by stating that the essence of a thing is different from its existence. The essence of a thing is that property without which it cannot be what it is. He argues that, to be a perfect being, a being must include in itself all perfection. Existence is perfection, therefore a perfect being (God) necessarily exist. The main outline of Descartes version of the o ntological argument is as followsI have the idea of a God that have got all perfection,Existence is a kind of perfectionIf the God I am thinking of lacked existence, then he will not be perfectHence, if I can have the idea of a perfect God, I must conclude that existence is one of Gods essential attributes.If existence is one of Gods essential attributes, he must existTherefore God exist.Descartes bases his argument on the whimsey that when one undecidedly understands the nature of something, one would be lead to conceive of all its essential properties. The idea of God according to Descartes is always thought to be the idea of a perfect being. As such, such a being cannot lack perfection of any kind, including existence. And no other being has existence as a part of its essence. Thus Descartes says, it would be contradictory to say, I think of a perfect being who necessarily has existence as its property but who does not exist. Having proved the existence of God, Descartes uses the existence of God to explain his existence. He now sees God as the source of his existence and sustenance. Prior to his discovery of God, he had no idea of wherefore he existed, for he could find no power within him that could buzz off about his existence. He now realizes that he is imperfect finite and hooklike on God. Criticisms of the Cartesian proof of Gods existence.There are many problems with Descartes argument. Perhaps, the most obvious are his reliance on the causal principles, his acceptance of his previous scholastic beliefs about the degrees of reality of ideas and of things and his claim that his idea of God is clear and distinct. Descartes posits that the light of nature teaches us how to distinguish what is clear and distinct from what is not. One problem that still remains a devil concerns how wecan know when the infallible light of nature is guiding us and when our natural impulses are leading us since we do not have any means of detecting when our natural im pulses are leading us from those instances where we are led by the light of nature. Several theologians of Descartess time challenged the claim that infinity and perfection must precede all thoughts of boundedness and imperfection.One of such critics puts it thus, I can surely take a given degree of being, which I perceive within myself, and add on a further degree of being, and thus construct the idea of a perfect being from all the degrees which are capable of being added on. If finite minds can construct the idea of infinity or perfection in this manner, we do not need to look outside of ourselves in an attempt to account for the origin of our idea of infinity. though many theologians who used this argument agree that there is the existence of God, they simply think that Descartes provided an inadequate argument for the existence of God. Many philosophers have also objected that existence is not a property at all, hence cannot be derived from the concept of God in the same way as Gods benevolence or omnipotence. We can also question Descartes claim that his idea of God is clear and distinct. Perhaps, the idea of a supremely perfect being contains a contradiction. scour if we were to grant Descartes that reality or existence is a property, why must we think that there is a most perfect being-that is, that there is a top to the scale, at which actuality is reached?From our exposition, it is apparent that Descartes rationalistic method has led him out of the slit of doubt. He is now certain of the existence of himself and God. The existence of God for him is particularly important because it released him from the prison of his mind. He now knows that something exists outside his own mind and its ideas. Thus, he uses his certainty of the existence of God as a bridge to the external world. It is important to note however that Descartes aim is to show that all knowledge can be derived from reason. He begins with the cogito which shows him that he exists as a thi nking thing. From the cogito, he knows that what he clearly and distinctly perceives by the light of nature must be true. Then he discovers certain clear and distinct principles which together with a clear and distinct idea of God enable him to derive Gods existence. Andones he has through this, he is able to remove the evil demon as a ground of doubt since an even more powerful benevolent perfect deity exist.We have successfully examined the issue of the existence of God. We began by examining the uncertain nature of the concept of God after which we attempted to understand how the truth of the cogito led Descartes to the discovery of the existence of God and the terrestrial world. from our exposition, we can say that conclusions on the existence of God can be divided along numerous axes, producing a variety of independent classifications such as Theism and atheism, Gnosticism and agnosticism, Ignosticism, and Apatheism. Though Descartes can be criticized and has been criticized o n many fronts, his contribution to the God question cannot be over emphasized. He has inspired many after him who have also contributed their quota to the problem all in a view to proffer solution to the perennial problem of God.BibliographyLawhead F., William, the Voyage of Discovery A historical Introduction to Philosophy, second edition, U.S.A Wadsworth, 2002. Sutchile F. E., Descartes Discourse on the Method, (trans.) London Penguin Books, 1968. Ariscombe E. and Geach, P. T., Descartes philosophical books (Ed.) newfound York Open University Press 1971. Beardsley C. Monroe, The European Philosophers from Descartes to Nietzsche, New York Random phratry Inc. 1992. Norris C., on Truth and meaning Language, Logic and the Grounds for Belief, London and New York Continuum, 2006. Jimoh K. A., Certitude and Doubt A Guide in Epistemology, Ibadan Ebony Books and Kreations, 2013.