DESCARTES 3RD MEDITATION
...gin, Descartes explores his reasons for needing the knowledge of God. He explains that he wants to arrive at a knowledge of truth, in order to understand his own origins. He investigates two possibilities, one being a finite cause and the other being an infinite cause. However, a finite cause cannot guarantee the arrival at truth. Finite causes have limited power; therefore, they can never give total guarantees. On the other hand, infinite causes with unlimited power such as God, may not even want us to achieve the truth. In essence, God is voracious and might act as a deceiver. Thus, in order to arrive at the truth, Descartes must prove that he was created by God. When considering God as an infinite cause, Descartes realizes that the idea of God must have far more objective reality, objective reality meaning totally independent, rather than created. Since the idea of God cannot have originated in himself, he concludes that God must be the cause of this idea and must exist. While he can doubt the existence of other things, he cannot doubt the existence of God, since he has such a clear and distinct perception of God's existence. The idea has the highest quantity of objective reality, and is therefore more likely to be true than any other idea. Descartes' seems to leave no stone unturned as he notes that some ideas may be innate. Some ideas are unintentional in that they come involuntarily into the mind from outside. Descartes further details his argument for the existence of "God" by asking that our ideas be viewed as modes of consciousness. The idea is purely subjective in that it resides only in the mind. If we consider those ideas that are images, we observe a variety of ideas all varying in perfection. Since the idea is an effect, the cause of this effect must possess as much reality as the effect. It may be asserted that any cause must have as much perfection as its effect. For instance, a stone cannot exist unless it is produced by a cause at least as perfect as the stone. The idea of heat must be produced in my mind by a cause that has as much perfection as the heat that I think of. When this principle is applied to his idea of God, Descartes asserts that the cause, God, must have as much reality and perfection as his idea of God which is in the effect. It is of the nature of perfection that a thing is perfect only if it exists. Therefore, through this analysis, he concludes that a perfect God must exist. Descartes knows that he is not the cause of his own idea of God. He thinks that any idea of an infinite, perfect, all-knowing God transcends his own mental ability. God, therefore, causes the idea of God in his mind. Because God is the cause, and the cause possesses as much perfection and reality as the effect (the idea of God), and an object is perfect only if it includes the concept of existence, Descartes asserts that the perfect cause, God, truly exists. Descartes demonstrates additionally that God exists by reason of the fact that he himself exists as a thinking being having a concept of God. He asserts that if he existed as an independent being that possesses every perfection, he would be God. Obviously his lack of perfection precludes the possibility of this. However, what exactly is the cause of his existence? As a dependent being, he asks upon whom he depends. If it is stated that he is dependent upon some other less perfect being than God, then the question will arise as to the source of this being's dependence. Eventually it is necessary to state that an all-perfect necessary being, possessing all the attributes of God, exists as the cause of Descartes' own contingent existence. Since Descartes believes he has established that God caused the idea of God in his mind, he next inquires into the problem of how he received this idea from God. Descartes concludes that this idea is innate in him. At the moment of his creation, God imposed the idea of himself in the mind of Descartes very much like a worker stamping his name to the product of his making. Descartes apprehends this idea in the same intuitive way that he understands the fact of his own thinking existence. He does not ever seem to fully deduce God's existence. He knows this immediately and intuitively. Descartes concludes that the contemplation of the idea of God is the source of greatest happiness in life. Although he admits that this is incomparably less perfect than the contemplation of God in the life to come as faith suggests, it is a fact of experience that the contemplation of God provides great happiness. Using a technique he calls analysis, Descartes follows this method of analysis to remove his mind of prejudices. This method inevitably leads us to the truths of God. Descartes also wants us to see t...