Meditations of Descartes presents a series of arguments about a thinking thing and a God’s existence. In this essay, I will doubt his reasoning by pointing out at some fallacies.

In search of a foundation of knowledge, Descartes starts from the scratch by undermining everything that he knows. He asks himself what could ground his existence if all his senses are deceptive. Seated next to the fireplace, Descartes realizes that he could even be dreaming at the moment, but there are not definite signs by which we could distinguish being awake from being asleep. Thus, body, shape, extension, movement and place are not certain. In this case, the only thing that could be true is the fact that Descartes has thoughts. He is a thinking thing. It does not matter if he is dreaming or not, he exists because he thinks. Suppose that an evil genius, supremely powerful and supremely sly, directs his entire effort at deceiving Descartes. So, the air, the earth, colors, shapes, sounds and all external things are nothing but illusionary dreams. The evil genius even makes believing Descartes that he has hands, eyes, flesh, blood or any senses, but he does not. Descartes persuades himself that he still exists despite deceiving. The fact that the deceiver deliberately deceives Descartes supposes that Descartes is something. The moment Descartes thinks he is something, he exists.

And let him do his best at deception; he will never bring it about that I am nothing so long as I shall think that I am something. Thus, must finally be established that this pronouncement “I am, I exist” is necessarily true every time I utter it or conceive it in my mind ( p. 43)

The problem with this argument is that Descartes supposes that even if he is deceived he is still the author of his thoughts. He thinks that his body and senses can be imaginary, while a thinking substance is real. Let’s say Descartes’ thought is nothing but a deceiver’s idea that is transmitted to a real Descartes’s thing by the wire. In this case, the thinking thing exists, but Descartes does not possess it. So, the evil genius deceives Descartes not only by making him believe that he is dreaming, but also that Descartes has his thoughts. Thus, “I am, I exist” is not grounded and should be transformed into “I am, the evil genius exists”. The Descartes’ argument falls apart.

Descartes continues that since he can rely on his existence as a thinking thing, he can rely on his ideas. One of these ideas is the idea of God, that is something clear and certain. God is infinite, independent, supremely intelligent, and supremely powerful. The more Descartes thinks about God, the more he is persuaded that God created him and everything else that exists. Since God is infinite and Descartes is finite, it is not possible that this idea could have arisen from Descartes alone. For an infinite substance cannot proceed from the finite one. Thus, the fact that Descartes has such un idea shows that Descartes is derived from God. Since God is an infinite being, he does not need an efficient cause. He could not create himself, because he always existed and existence is his essence.

And precisely because in God existence is not distinguished from essence, the formal cause is strikingly analogous to an efficient cause, and thus can be called a “quasi-efficient cause”. (p.91)

If God always existed, the universe as a perfect whole could always exist as well. There is no reason for God to create something, considering that he is perfect and lacks nothing. So, everything that was supposed to be created by God, was already there. Descartes is finite, but as a thinking thing, he could always exist. He was just there as God. It follows, that Descartes is not derived from God and his idea about God is nothing but his own idea that always existed.

God is a being who possesses all perfections, and consequently, he possesses existence since it is contradictory to think of God lacking existence. Descartes states that when we imagine a winged horse, it does not seem to follow that a winged horse exists. Unlike a winged horse, when we think of God, it is inseparable from existence. Thus, God exists.

For I am not free to think of God without existence, that is, a supremely perfect being without a supreme perfection, as I am to imagine a horse with or without wings. (p. 59)

Let’s imagine a perfect Pegasus. In this case, we think of a winged horse that is supremely beautiful, powerful, intelligent, independent and infinite. It lacks nothing and existence is counted as one of its perfections. In a similar way, we can think of anything perfect, such as perfect triangle, perfect soul, perfect mind. So, if “perfect” is a quality that imposes existence on things, then every idea of a perfect thing should force us to think that it exists. So, according to the Descartes’ argument, Pegasus should exist.

In conclusion, Descartes introduced a strong argument of undermining all our experiences and ideas. Nevertheless, his foundation of knowledge based on God did not provide a convincing solution to solve this problem.

References:

  • Descartes’ Meditations in Modern Philosophy: An Anthology of Primary Sources, Roger Ariew & Eric Watkins (eds.), Hackett Pub. Co. (2009)