Fifth Meditation
In the "Fifth Meditation" by Rene Descartes, he makes a case for the existence of God. He goes on to give reason to prove his argument that to exist is to believe in God for with out God we would not exist. Descartes gives the analogy of a mountain and a valley, pointing out that if a person believes that a mountain exists they cannot deny the existence of a valley, as stated in this quote: "From the fact that I cannot think of a mountain without a valley, it does not follow that a mountain and valley exist anywhere, but simply that a mountain and a valley, whether they exist or not, are mutually inseparable." Descartes states the argument here, "But from the fact that I cannot think of God except as existing, it follows that existence is inseparable from God, and hence that he really exists." Then he goes on to explain his reasons for the existence of God, "It is not that my thought makes it so, or imposes any necessity of the thing itself, namely the existence of God, which determines my thinking in this respect. For I am not free to think of God without existence." He is saying, without God he would not exist, and if he does not exist he cannot think therefore God must exist if he has the ability to think. H
Descartes works seem to be his own ambitions, and desires to achieve deep understanding about the nature of everything including God, the physical world, and himself. It is only with clear and distinctly perceived knowledge of these things that he then begins to understand his true reality. As a scientist, his most important accomplishment was his invention of analytic geometry, which he often used in his meditations to explain his arguments. In his Meditations, Descartes tries to discover certain, unquestionable foundations for knowledge. He is searching for absolute certainty, and does this by subjecting everything to doubt. By doing this he reaches the one thing he believes to be certain, which is his existence.
Some common words found in the essay are:
God God, God Descartes, Fleche Anjou, Meditations Descartes, Rene Descartes, existence god, god exists, god exist, perceives god, mountain valley, free god, god descartes, exists god, god god, god existence, existence god descartes, free god existence, god existing follows, perceives god exists, mountain valley exist,
Approximate Word count = 1153
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
|
