Meditation 3: of God; That he exists Flashcards
what are clear and distinct ideas
clear and distinct ideas are necessarily true-this is never explained any further.
what is the distinction Descartes made between:
ideas:
volitions and affections:
and judgements:
ideas: which is just what they are-the idea of a man, just like a picture in the mind.
volitions and affections: desires and emotions
Judgements: of all of these judgements can be true or false and Descartes is interested in them alone.
where do judgements come from?
- innate (they come from within him eg numbers)
- fictions (which he act actively makes up eg the idea of chimera)
- adventitious (caused by the external world which means they are caused by his senses)
what is the problem with assuming that some of our judgements are adventitious?
- we do not know if our minds are subconsciously causing them
- even if ideas are caused by the external world how do we know they accurately resemble it.
what are the key terms Descartes uses to explain how it is that some ideas appear to be adventitious.
All ideas have what he calls formal reality-their own existence as ideas in my mind. However, some have objective reality-that they are ideas of something, and these are the ones which I can cause.
Formal reality: the reality of anything’s existence as itself (all ideas have this equally)
Objective reality: the representational reality which makes a mental concept what it is (all ideas have different levels in relation to what they are an idea of for example my idea of my mum has more objective reality than a tree)
CAP-causal adequacy principle
objective reality must come from something. What it comes from must have at least as much formal reality as the idea has objective reality.
formal reality: how much perfection something has
objective reality: how perfect is my idea of it
An idea of a tree has as much objective reality as an actual tree has formal reality. Descartes has greater formal reality than the idea of the tree has objective reality and therefore Descartes would argue that he could have caused his idea of the tree.
the Trademark Arguement
this is what Descartes develops from CAP.
What is Descartes clear and distinct idea of God?
“A God who is sovereign, eternal, infinite, unchangeable, all-knowing, all powerful and the universal creator of all things”
based on the difference between Descartes’s formal reality and his idea of God’s objective reality.
I have an idea of God which is all the things Descartes has suggested he is, therefore he must have more objective reality than I have formal reality. This means I cannot have created/caused my idea of God. And the only possible creator with enough perfection/formal reality to have done so is God himself-therefore God must exist.
how does Descartes test his argument?
-doesn’t really have an idea of a perfect etc God only what he calls a “negation of the finite”-he is only thinking of something which is the opposite of imperfect. So how does he know God is perfect and more than something which is just not imperfect.
What is the criticism from resemble and represent?
Descartes did not recognise the distinction between resembles and represents, he believed ideas automatically resemble what they represent.
for example an idea of bravery cannot resemble bravery but it can represent it. My idea of bravery is a knight in shining armour this cannot resemble bravery but is does represent it.
our idea of God doesn’t resemble God but represents him and therefore does not have to be perfect because it is only a representation. So Descartes could have caused his idea.
what is the criticism from ideas are not models
If my idea of perfection is a “powerful and intelligent being” then I have a poor idea of God because perfection is so much more than that and any idea I can conceive.
example my idea of paris is never going to be as complex as the real thing therefore does not have as much perfection as the real thing.
