Descartes third meditation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Descartes third meditation - Essay Example If from itself, then it is clear from what has been said that it is itself God, since if it has the power of existing through its own might, then undoubtedly it also has the power of actually possessing all the perfections of which it has an idea—that is, all the perfections which I conceive to be in God. If, on the other hand, it derives its existence from another cause, then the same question may be repeated concerning this further cause, namely whether it derives its existence from itself or from another cause, until eventually the ultimate cause is reached, and this will be God. Descartes presents two evidences of that outcome. Each piece of evidence states that an identified effect can be clarified as long as an all-powerful being is present. The effects Descartes draws on are the meditator’s idea of (1) his/her life as predetermined and (2) of God. In this manner, Descartes directs the meditator to dig up his well-known rule for unraveling the truth, which is ‘clear and distinct perceptions are true’ (Cunning 2010, 62). And, undoubtedly, a great deal of the Third Meditation focuses on whether the assumption of a misleading God, which appears to dispute the rule, can be eliminated (Wilson 2003). The application of the rule in assessing and disputing the deceiving-God assumption has encouraged a number of scholars to accuse Descartes of circular reasoning. In the Third Meditation, Descartes further claims that, fundamentally, God’s existence as his maker is a circumstance of his taking part in inquiry informed by the method of doubt. This allows him to analyze with absolute confidence that God made him, and hence that all he knows ‘clearly’ and ‘distinctly’ to be factual, is factual. God’s existence, in that case, is an external state of Descartes’s doubt (Gaukroger 2006). Apparently, God is not external with regard to taking up a space that