Descartes Ontological Arguement Flashcards
Define Cartesian
Relating to Descartes and his thoughts
What did Descartes believe was imprinted upon humans at birth?
Innate ideas shared by all of humanity. This includes things like equality, cause, shape, number and, crucially, an understanding of what God is
How did Descartes describe god?
God is a supremely perfect being with all perfections as his attributes. By perfections, Descartes meant the traditional attributes of the god of classical theism
Explain the Cartesian ontological arguement
- god is the most perfect being possible, so he has all perfections
- existence is a perfection
- as the most perfect being, god must exist
Explain Descartes’s analogy of the triangle
- you can’t think of a triangle without thinking of three sides or internal angles that add up to make 180 degrees
- just as the notion of three sides is essential to a triangle, so is existence essential to the notion of god
What quote summarises Descartes idea of the analogy of triangle
You can’t think of a mountain without thinking of a vallley
What does Descartes believe the analogy of the triangle proves?
Proves that even if things in the world cannot be encountered through the senses, it does not mean he invented them or they can be called nothing. We can therefore know that existence is a property of god without encountering him
What quote summarises Descartes view on the innate knowledge we have of god?
’ the idea of god (a supremely perfect being) is certainly one that I find within me, just as I find the ideas of shapes and numbers; I understand that it belongs to god’s nature that he always exists. I ought to regard the existence of God as being at least as certain as I have taken the truths of mathematics to be
What does Descartes mean when he says the existence of God cannot be separated from his essence
Descartes uses essence to mean something fundamental to what something is. For example, three angles would be in the essence of a triangle
Kant rejected the ontological arguement on what grounds?
That it falsely treats existence as a predicate
What is a predicate?
An attribute or quality of something that can be possessed or lacked. It is the part of a sentence that expresses something about the subject
Why does Kant say existence is not a predicate?
Because it does not express anything about the subject. Saying a subject exists does not tell us anything about what the subject is like. You do not have to discuss whether something exists before using predicates - predicates can be used if hypothetical objects. Whether an object exists is not something that can be predicates of the object
State the Kant quote that summarises his idea that we must establish whether something exists before we discuss predicates
‘by whatever and by whatever number of predicates - even to the complete determination of it - I may cotigate (think of) a thing, I do not in the least increase the object of my conception by the addition of the statement, this thing exists’
What is Kant’s retort to the analogy of the triangle?
While it is contradictory to think of a triangle that does not have 3 angles, it is not contradictory to think of a triangle and it’s angles not existing
