descartes argument for gods existence Flashcards
what is an ontological argument
an argument for the existence of god which is based only a priori premises, including a priori truths about the nature/essence of god
what is Descartes ontological argument for the existence of god
P1: I have a concept of god as a supremely perfect being. This is an innate concept that we discover within our minds. to say it is innate mean that it has been set in our minds since our mind first existed. it was not from the senses ad that it was not invented by us.
P2: A supremely perfect being has all perfections
P3: existence is a perfection. something cannot be perfect if it doesn’t exist. here, descartes thins that existence is part of the essence of god, in the same way as having angles that make 180 degrees is part of the essence of a triangle.
c: therefore, god exists. Leibniz pointed out that there is an important missing premise, namely that the idea of god is a coherent idea. Leibniz thinks that this additional and necessary premise is true and can be defined
what type of argument is the ontological argument
deductive argument.
the conclusions follows the truths of the resumes with logical necessity
how are the premises justified
a priori
no premises are justified through experience
what is descartes fifth mediation
descartes ontological argument
what is Descartes 6th mediation
descartes proof of the external world
what is Descartes proof of the external world
P1: I have perceptual experiences as if of physical objects, which must have a cause
P2: this cause must be either my own mind, god, or external physical objects.
P3: if the cause were my own mind, those perceptual experiences would be VOLUNTARY/UNDER MY CONTROL
P4: however, they are not voluntary/under my control
P5: if the cause were god, then those perceptual experiences would be DECEPTIVE. given that I have a very strong tendency to believe that physical objects exist
P6: however, they cannot be deceptive and so the cause cannot be god, since god exists and is not a deceiever
C1: therefore, those perceptual experiences must be caused by external physical objects due to the process of elimination
C2: therefore, there is an external world of physical objects
how does descartes prove that there is a world of material objects which exists independently
- through a priori deduction.
- descartes doesn’t just want to rely solely on common sense alone, instead wants to PROVE that a world exists outside of his mind in a way that cannot be doubted (a priori deduction).
- He wants to prove that we can trust out experiences and wants to give an a priori justification of the claims we make based on experience.
- descartes wants to show that we can gain a priori knowledge of the existence of the external world through deduction.
what does Descartes say that we know
a) we exist (the cogito) as a thinking thing (intuition).
b) god exists
c) the external world exists
what do people call Descartes intuition/deduction thesis
rationalist foundationalism
foundationalism
a view in which knowledge is structured and related to other knowledge according to which there is:
a) at least some non-inferentially justified foundational knowledge
b) other inferentially justified knowledge claims which are based upon these foundational beliefs and justified by them
rationalist foundationalism
where the foundational knowledge is a priori intuitions and then a priori deduction is used to justify non-foundational beliefs.
