God's Role In Descartes Argument In The Meditations

God’s existence plays a major role in Descartes’ arguments in the Meditations, especially the Third and Fifth Mediations. Throughout this essay I will explore Descartes’ arguments on God’s existence and argue that he is not entitled to use God’s existence in this way due to the fact that his argument is circular and that he felt pressured to prove God’s existence due to personal belief and necessity. Had Descartes not proven the existence of God, he would not have be able to prove that anything else is true in life besides his own existence.

Descartes’ first argument for God’s existence is known as the causal argument and occurs in the Third Meditation. Prior to this argument, the Meditator notes that his hypothesis of the demon doubt from

How does he avoid committing the fallacy of a vicious circle when he says we are certain that what is perceived clearly and distinctly is true only because God exists? But we can be certain that God exists only because we perceive it clearly and distinctly. Therefore before we are certain that God exists we have to be certain that whatever we perceive clearly and distinctly is true’ (90)

Descartes also makes the controversial claim that the idea of God is ‘innate’ in him (43). He states that the idea of God was not fabricated by him because he can ‘neither add to it nor subtract anything from it’ (43). Hobbes, however, makes the point that we do not all have a clear and distinct idea of God and therefore Descartes is not entitled to use God’s existence in this way:

‘Besides, when Descartes says that the ideas of God and of our soul are innate in us, I want to know if the souls of those who are fast asleep and not dreaming are thinking. If they are not, then they have no ideas during that time. Therefore no idea is innate because whatever is innate is always present’

He states:

‘But it is clear…that existence can no more be separated from God’s essence than one can separate, from the essence of a triangle, that the three angles are equal to two right angles, or that one could separate the idea of a valley from the idea of a mountain’ (53)

Attributes usually attributed to God are that he is omnipotent, omnipresent and omniscient. Descartes suggest that existence is one of God’s attributes. Mersenne argues against this point by stating that:

‘[A]n atheist knows clearly and distinctly that the three angles of a triangle are equal to two right angles. However, they are so far from supposing God’s existence that they openly deny it’ (78) After this ‘proof’, the Meditator once again returns to the idea that God could not be a deceiver due to the clearly and distinctly rule. Descartes is therefore claiming that God justifies the memory of past clear and distinct perceptions-once again giving a circular