Formal arguments Flashcards
What is Descartes’ formal ‘Cogito’?
P1: I am a thinking thing.
P2: All thinking things exist.
P3: Therefore, I must exist.
What is Descartes’ formal ‘trademark argument’
P1: Something can only be as perfect as its cause.
P2: I have a perfect idea of God in my mind.
P3: I am an imperfect being.
P4: I cannot make a perfect idea of God in my mind.
C1: Something wholly perfect must’ve put this idea in my mind.
C2: This being must be God.
C3: Therefore, God exists.
What is Descartes’ formal ‘contingency argument’
P1: My existence must’ve come from one of four places:
1) Myself
2) I have always existed
3) My parents
4) God
P2: I cannot have made myself, as I would’ve made myself perfect.
P3: My parents may be responsible for my phyical creation, but not necessarily my mental creation.
P4: I have not always existed, as I would have experienced that.
C: God is the only being which could be responsible for my creation.
What is Descartes formal Ontological argument?
P1: A perfect being would have all perfections.
P2: Existence is a quality of a perfect being.
P3: God is a perfect being
C: Therefore, God exists.
What is step 1a of Descartes proof of the external world?
My sensations originate outside of me:
P1: My senses are not subject to my will
P2: The will is part of my essence.
C: Therefore, sensations come to me externally.
What is step 1b of Descartes proof of the external world?
P1: My nature or essence is unextended.
P2: sensations are ideas of extended things.
C: Therefore, my sensations come from outside me.
What is step 2 of Descartes’ proof of the external world?
P1: There are two possible origins of my sensations:
1) God 2) The material world.
P2: I have a strong inclination that the material world exists and I have no faculty to change this.
C1: If they originated from God, he would be a deciever.
C2: Sensations originate in matter.
