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One of his reasons for believing in god is that he knows (or thinks) that God is perfect. Since perfection includes existence, he therefore assumes that God must exist.
Answer:
Descartes made a series of increasingly unsupportable suppositions to back up his beleief in God:
1. I exist (A supportable statement for an individual - Cogito ergo sum)
2. I have in my mind the notion of a perfect being (The idea that anyone can develop an idea of a perfect being is not provable. The Aztec may have thoght their bloodthirsty gods perfect as well)
3. An imperfect being, like myself, cannot think up the notion of a perfect being (There is no proof although it is believable that humans are not perfect and it is debatable if the idea he has of a perfect being is indeed perfect)
4. Therefore the notion of a perfect being must have originated from the perfect being himself (This is a flight of fancy)
5. A perfect being would not be perfect if it did not exist (Buddhists, for example see perfection in the loss of being)
6. Therefore a perfect being must exist (This does not follow from any of the above statements)
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What sort of god does descartes describe?
Descartes claimed to be a devout Catholic however God seemed to be a used deity for him. He seemed to use God when it was convenient and didn't believe in him when he wasn't needed.
Does Descartes believe that our minds are infinite?
Descartes believed that the human mind contained particular innate ideas, one of which was infinity. Rene Descartes was a French philosopher.
How did Rene Descartes prove god's existence?
Rene Descartes philosophy of logic and rationality led him to come to the conclusion that God must exist. Without his existence, there is not explanation for the universe.
What is the soul governed by according to Descartes?
According to Descartes the soul is governed by the mind. He believed that thought processes form what we believe is a soul.
What does Cartesian philosophy conclude about the existence of God?
Descartes's major work is Meditations on First Philosophythe third of which deals with the existence of God as an 'effect'Rene' Descartes was a mathematician and idealist philosopher. His major impact on philosophy and religion was his ontological proof of the existence of God.
