Meditations 5

Question 1

What is the point in Dizzy D’s Onto arg?

Answer 1

Descartes lived during the 17th Century

• Rationality = radical school of thought within his paradigm
• Descartes already believes he knows God exists through intuiton
• This could be bridging the gap between reason and faith

Question 2

Analytic statements - triangle

Answer 2

“I imagine a triangle, even if perhaps no such figure exists…there is still a determinate nature, essence, or form of the triangle which is immutable and eternal, and not invented by me”

Question 3

The idea of God as an analytic

Answer 3

“the idea of God…is one which I find within me just as surely as the idea of any shape or number.”

Question 4

God being perfection

Answer 4

The scope of perfection is wide (all perfections). Think of the mountain and valley analogy

—> Wherever there is a mountain there is a valley.

At the heart of the argument is the assumption that God is an infinite and perfect being

—> “infinite” = without limits or boundaries

—> God is the most perfect thing that can be perceived. (” Certainly, the idea of God, or a supremely perfect being, is one that I find within me just as surely as the idea of any shape or number”)

Question 5

Whatever is perfect must exist/Necessary existence is a perfection

Answer 5

There is a clear connection between his characteristics and existence (Because our minds are finite,

(“hence may not immediately notice the necessity of their being joined together”)

But if we attend carefully to *“whether existence belongs to a supremely perfect being, and what sort of existence it is”

we shall discover that we cannot conceive any one of the other attributes while excluding necessary existence from it”

This point is best illustrated through God’s divine omnipotence

—> There is no other way of thinking of an omnipotent being other than existing

Existence is a necessary part of perfection —> That is, something perfect must exist

—> This is because existence adds to the perfection of something —>(“Therefore, the proposition, God exists, is necessarily true, by its terms, for if we consider the clear and distinct idea of God, we shall find that the existence is included in the idea.”)

“Existence is not separated from the existence of God”

Question 6

Guanilo

Answer 6

Perfect Island COUNTER not the sort of Maximal qualities

Question 7

Immanuel Kant:

Answer 7

Existence is not a property

→ It cannot be included in a concept of a thing

—> Example of a toy

—> Existence is not what “makes a toy”

—> It is a condition required for you to play with the toy such as the ability to breath, but existence is not like a colour, which is a property.