Philosophy of Descartes

A detailed Summary of Philosophy of Descartes

In the New Merriam Webster Dictionary, sophism is defined as a plausible but fallacious argument. In Rene Descartes Meditation V, he distinguishes the existence of God, believing he must prove that god exists before he can examine any corporeal objects outside of himself. By proving that the existence of God is not a sophism, he also argues that God is therefore the Supreme Being and the omnipotent one. His conclusion that God does exist enables him to prove the existence of material things, and the difference between the soul and the body.

Ideas, innovations, and inventions are all created from brilliant minds. Than how did these ideas come to be? Descartes believes that God is the cause of new innovations adding, therefore God instilled in us the idea of his existence. Explaining, in order for us to draw an idea from a presumption or thought, than an object must have been derived not by us but rather God. An example of his presumption of the existence of God would be the fact that if one cannot imagine a bookshelf without books. Whether one exists or not, it is true than that they cannot be separated from each other. Descartes follows by stating that "he cannot conceive God without existence, existence is inseparab

Nature may titillate or cause extreme pain but is a teaching of the sensations of gratification and pain. Nature helps us differentiate what is to be avoided and what we desire. The idea of being thirsty allows us to look for and drink liquid of some sort. Fire is a dangerous natural disaster that should not be reckoned with. But can we assume that fire has a body and we should stay away from it? We cannot assume that is has a body rather it is nature that perceives us to stay away from fire because it will be detrimental to our body. It is the mind that allows us to stay away from the fire, so that the body may be prevented from harm. Therefore again insisting that the body and mind are two different parts.

An imagination is not only of corporeal things but can also be of feelings, sounds, colors, and scents. We cannot derive some proof of the existence of corporeal objects until we can perceive the difference between the nature of feelings, sounds, colors, scents, and material things. Descartes first perceives that he has a body, which at the beginning he considers as a whole of himself as composed. The reason was the fact that pain accompanied anything detrimental to the body. But if one were to have his arm amputated, the body would be missing an ingredient while the mind would still work the same with an arm or without. Hence, Descartes concludes that the body and the mind are not whole.

The word disagreement is far from what I feel about Descartes. Indeed I do believe in God but his reasons urge me to believe they are sophisms. The idea that God exists because we thought of a God that exists is frivolous. He may exist in essence, he may not, in fact he may not even be a supreme being. We cannot assume that God exists in terms of mind nor mathematically. Than we must assume that the Devil, Superman, and Batman exists. They were all creations of the mind so therefore it must have also been instilled in us that they exist.

Descartes ends his Meditations by discussing dreams and reality. He believes that our memory and mind cannot connect our lives to the dreams. Adding that an image that appears in our dreams are phantoms or ghosts of some sort, and not human. Therefore the dreams cannot be a recollec

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Approximate Word count = 1521
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)

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