Descartes' Proof of God's Existence Through Objective Reality of Ideas

Extract

[...] In the first instance, Descartes distinguishes his ideas according to degrees of objective reality. It must indeed be recalled that, on the one hand, the idea taken in itself, this thought, is a certain modification of the mind, of the thinking substance, which, like any other thing, is endowed with a certain formal reality, that is to say, a certain degree of reality, namely the degree of reality characteristic of the idea, mode existing in the human mind ». But it is a matter of considering them, not justin so far as they are certain ways of thinking », that is to say, not only in their formal reality, but in so far as the idearepresents » something in mind, that it is like aimage ». [...]

[...] In fact, the negation of what he can conceive, such as light, does not allow him to imagine something as distinct as light, but only the 'darkness', which manifests itself as an insurmountable absence, necessarily having less reality than his clear idea (here for example, of light). But in the case of the infinite substance and the finite substance, it is the opposite that occurs: Descartes affirms seeing the notion of infinity as having 'clearly'more reality still » that the notion of finie. This implies that, although it is not its cause, the idea of infinity exists primarily in him, before any notion of finie, and as a result of the reasoning we have exposed earlier, it is then necessary that this idea comes from God himself. [...]

[...] The ideas of things that have more objective reality are more than the ideas of less real things - the idea of a substance is more than the idea of a mode or an accident. Descartes makes an analogy that assimilates the difference of 'degree of being or perfection » that exists between substance and mode or accident; and that which exists between the infinite (i.e. God), and any finite substance that might come to his mind. Thus, the objective being dont my idea is the idea, necessarily has more objective reality than any finite being. [...]

[...] Now, as we have seen, if every idea is an idea of something, she can really be indicative of something only if this thing is the cause of its content, that is, insofar as it can be understood as the effect of what it aims at. It is this insistence on a causality between the thing aimed at and the idea that aims at it, which allows Descartes to prove the existence of God from the clear idea he has of him. [...]

[...] Descartes relies on this point to this form of indubitable evidence that can be suggested by an idea, as he has already stated before in the meditations. By the sole 'natural light', and on condition of advancing little by little, and with method, one can access by oneself a certain number of certain knowledge. Descartes therefore counts, among these knowledge, the idea according to which 'there must be at least as much reality in the efficient cause as in its effect», this is an important point in the continuation of his demonstration Indeed, in a second movement, Descartes emphasizes that the presence in his mind of an idea relating to some objective reality, which he conceives that this reality is not in himself other than as an object that his idea is, is the indication that such an objective reality must exist outside of him. [...]