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
Now therefore, if from this alone, _That I can frame the Idea of a Thing
in my Mind_, it follows, _That whatever I clearly and distinctly perceive
belonging to a thing_, does _Really belong to it_; Cannot I from hence
draw an Argument to Prove the _Existence_ of a _God_? Certainly I find
the _Idea_ of a _God_, or _infinitely perfect Being_, as _naturally_ in
me, as the _Idea_ of any _Figure_, or _Number_; and I as _clearly_ and
_distinctly_ understand that it appertains to his _Nature Always to Be_,
as I know that what I can _demonstrate_ of a _Mathematical Figure_ or
_Number_ belongs to the _Nature_ of that _Figure_ or _Number_: so that,
tho all things which I have _Meditated_ upon these three or four days
were not _true_, yet I may well be as _certain_ of the _Existence_ of a
_God_, as I have hitherto been of _Mathematical Truths_.
_Doubt._ Yet this Argument at first sight appears not so _evident_, but
looks rather like a _sophism_; for seeing I am used in all other things
to _Distinguish Existence_ from _Essence_, I can easily perswade my self
that the _Existence_ of _God_ may be _distinguish’d_ from his _Essence_,
so that I may _Imagine God_ not to _Exist_.
_Solution._ But considering it more strictly, ’tis manifest, that the
_Existence_ of _God_ can no more be _seperated_ from his _Essence_,
then the _Equality_ of the _Three Angles_ to _two right ones_ can be
_seperated_ from the _Essence_ of a _Triangle_, or then the _Idea_ of a
_Mountain_ can be _without_ the _Idea_ of a _valley_; so that ’tis no
less a _Repugnancy_ to think of a _God_ (that is, _A Being infinitely
perfect_) who wants _Existence_ (that is, who wants a _Perfection_) then
to think of a _Mountain_, to which there is _no Valley adjoyning_.
_Doubt._ But what if I cannot imagine _God_ but as _Existing_, or a
_Mountain without a Vally_? yet supposing me to think of a _Mountain with
a Vally_, it does not from thence follow, that there _Is a Mountain_
in the World; so supposing me to think of a _God_ as _Existing_, yet
does it not follow that _God Really Exists_. For my _Thought imposes_
no _necessity_ on Things, and as I may imagine a _Winged Horse_, tho no
_Horse_ has _Wings_, so I may imagine an _existing God_, tho no _God
exist_.
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