Descartes Third Meditation

In The Third Meditation Descartes is basically reviewing what he has ascertained to date. He still doubts  the existence of bodily things, however he  is certain that he exists and that he is a thinking thing that doubts, understands, wills, imagines, and senses, among other things. He realizes that he could not be certain unless all clear and distinct perceptions can be certain. Therefore, he concludes that whatever he perceives clearly and distinctly must be true. The Meditator says that he cannot yet be certain which ideas come from where, or even if perhaps all of our ideas are innate, adventitious or invented. Having ascertained that he exists and that he is a thinking thing, the Meditator tries to determine how he can know these things, and whether he might come to know other things as well by similar means. Descartes seems to want to escape the problems involved in clear and distinct perceptions by relying on God’s existence to make them true. However, Descartes also seems to want to prove God’s existence by claiming it as a clear and distinct perception. Descartes claims that God is infinite and is perfect and only if God derives his existence from itself than he can be God. If a certain soul derives its existence from something else, than it can’t be a God.

In a way I agree with Descartes’ Philosophy. To me God is the most supreme and powerful being and he grants himself existence. Meaning that he created himself and no one is above him. Therefore God is the ultimate power and he grants existence to us. But on the other hand I strongly disagree with Descartes on the account of doubting bodily things and perceptions. I believe that I exist and my body exists. In my opinion I am real and most of the objects that I perceive actually exist.

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2 Responses to Descartes Third Meditation

  1. obalaban says:

    WOW this an amazing posting. I really enjoyed reading this and it was just so incredible that i have no comment on it!!! Good job Oleh!!!

  2. mlongo says:

    I feel as if the post made complete sense. The end of the post, however, I feel as if God might be accepted as the most supreme and powerful being, but there is a lot of doubt in that matter. I feel as if since we question our existence, there is room for doubting or questioning the existence of God. Also, there are other ideas and beliefs of how we exist such as a supreme god, or even evolution/big bang theory. However, if there is such an existence of a supreme god, what evidence is there that he just popped out of anywhere? It is difficult to understand that a supreme god just came into existence because of his powers because it is sort of under the realm of “paranormal”. I feel supreme gods are only believed because of faith rather than evidence and sometimes the fact that it is simply difficult to understand the fact that a supreme god has created himself to create our existence.

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