René Descartes Trademark Argument Analysis

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In the third Meditation of Meditations On First Philosophy written by René Descartes, Descartes presents his Trademark Argument (TA) to argue for the existence of a non-deceiving God. In this paper, I shall show that the second axiom of this argument needs revision, by evaluating several objections and defenses towards this axiom.

To begin with, in the TA Descartes proves how possessing an idea of God directly leads to the necessary existence of a non-deceiving God. He proposes two principles for his further definitions and axioms to be base on, and then conclude that such a God exists.

The first principle is that it is certain, presently, that Descartes is a thinking thing, with various modes of thought in him, like he “imagines and perceives” …show more content…

Descartes argues that since a clear and distinct perception of his mind led him to know the truth of his existence, this method can be generalized to give him “certain of a truth” , which means an absolute truth. However, this principle is only true if there is no deceiving God tricking him into believing falsities that seem clear and distinct. Thus Descartes must prove that a non-deceiving God exists to prove that this rule is true, by considering the nature and origin of the idea of God, to demonstrate how such idea then proves that a non-deceiving God …show more content…

Descartes proves this using the “C&D rule” (he was convinced by “the natural light” ), and thinks it is an indisputable metaphysical law, as he only offers the “natural light” argument as a proof. This leads to two axioms. First, the FR of the cause is at least as much as the FR of its effect, or idea. Second, the FR of the cause is at least as much as the OR of the idea. Descartes supports the first axiom by arguing that “something cannot proceed from nothing” – the existence of everything must be

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