Six metaphysical meditations: $b Wherein it is proved that there is a God and that mans mind is really distinct from his bodyDescartes, René
PhilosophyPhilosophy
Six metaphysical meditations: $b Wherein it is proved that there is a God and that mans mind is really distinct from his body
Descartes, René
Descartes, René, 1596-1650; First philosophy; God -- Proof, Ontological; Knowledge, Theory of; Metaphysics; Methodology
These things when I Consider more heedfully, it comes into my Mind,
First, that ’tis no cause of Admiration that _God_ should do Things
whereof I can give no account, nor must I therefore doubt his _Being_,
because there are many things done by him, and I not comprehend _Why_
or _How_ they are done; for seeing I now know that my _Nature_ is very
_Weak_ and _Finite_, and that the _Nature_ of _God_ is _Immense_,
_Incomprehensible_, _Infinite_; from hence I must fully, understand, that
he can do numberless things, the _Causes_ whereof lie _hidden_ to Me.
Upon which account only I esteem all those Causes which are Drawn from
the End (viz. _Final Causes_) as of no use in _Natural Philosophy_, for I
cannot without Rashness Think my self _able_ to Discover _Gods_ Designes.
I perceive this also, that whenever we endeavour to know whether the
_Works_ of _God_ are _perfect_, we must not Respect any _one kind_ of
Creature _singly_, but the _Whole Universe_ of _Beings_; for perhaps what
(if considered _alone_) may Deservedly seem _Imperfect_, yet (as it is a
_part_ of the _World_) is most _perfect_; and tho since I have _doubted_
of all things, I have discover’d nothing _certainly_ to _Exist_, but _my
self_, and _God_, yet since I have Consider’d the _Omnipotency_ of _God_,
I cannot deny, but that many other things _are made_ (or at least, _may
be made_) by him, so that I my self _may be_ a _part_ of this _Universe_.
Furthermore, coming nigher to my self, and enquiring what these _Errors_
of mine, are (which are the Only Arguments of my _Imperfection_) * I
find them to _depend_ on _two concurring Causes_, on my _faculty_ of
_Knowing_, and on my _faculty_ of _Choosing_ or _Freedome_ of my _Will_,
that is to say, from my _Understanding_, and my _Will together_. For
by my _Understanding alone_ I only perceive _Ideas_, whereon I make
_Judgments_, wherein (_precisely_ so taken) there can be no _Error,
properly_ so called; for tho perhaps there may be numberless things,
whose _Ideas_ I have _not_ in Me, yet I am not _properly_ to be said
_Deprived_ of them, but only _negatively wanting_ them; and I cannot
prove that _God ought_ to have given me a _greater faculty_ of _Knowing_.
And tho I understand him to be a _skilful Workman_, yet I cannot Think,
that he _ought_ to have put all those _perfections_ in _each_ Work of his
_singly_, with which he might have _endowed some_ of them.
Neither can I complain that _God_ has not given me a _Will_, or _Freedom_
of _Choise_, _large_ and _perfect_ enough; for I have experienced that
’tis _Circumscribed_ by _no Bounds_.
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