Descartes on God

Paper Summary:

This paper covers both Descartes's ontological argument and cosmological argument for the existence of God as well as their counter arguments. It also looks at other philosophers such as Kierkegaard to Kant and their arguments for the existence or non-existence of God. The Cartesian Circle is also discussed along with the 'free will defence argument' and self-originating principles.

From the Paper:

"The reasoning behind why Descartes decided to try to prove the existence of God stems from his need to do so. Descartes needed to prove the existence of God in order to back up his theory of logic and reasoning and in particular his notions of 'clear and distinct ideas'. These clear and distinct ideas that Descartes has stem from his statement that if he can "perceive something very clearly and distinctly" , then he "can not but believe it to be true" . Indeed Descartes wants God "as a guarantor of the truth of any proposition that anyone...find indubitable while having it distinctly in mind" . Furthermore, Descartes is compelled to try to prove the existence of God because he is incredibly doubtful of everything around him in the exterior world. In fact Descartes' rationalism and constant doubting of his knowledge as a form of his logical reasoning leads hims to the conclusion that he cannot actually imagine an exterior world. "

Sample of Sources Used:

• Primary Sources:
• Descartes, Key Philosophical Writings, (trans: E.S. Haldane and G.R.T. Ross) 1997, Wordsworth
• Dictionary of Philosophy, Thomas Mautner, 2005, Penguin Books
• The Complete A-Z Sociology Handbook, Tony Lawson and Joan Garrod, 2000, Hodder & Stoughton
• The Rationality of Belief in God, George I. Mavrodes, 1970, Prentice Hall Inc.

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