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descartes and god |
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Descartes, the father of Rationalism, believed he could logically prove that something, namely God, existed besides him. Formal existence is actual existence. Objective existence is existing as an object of thought. His proof follows: 1) I have the idea of an all-perfect being, God 2) My idea exists, thus, it has formal existence (the idea doe) 3) As the object of my idea, God has an objective existence 4) Everything that exists has a formally or actually existing cause so my idea of God has a formally or actually existing cause 5) There must be as much perfection in a total cause as is contained, formally and objectively, in its effect, so my idea of God must be caused by something with at least as much perfection as my idea of God contains both formally and objectively 6) My idea is one of an all-perfect being so it has infinite perfection 7) I am an imperfect being so I can not be the cause of a perfect idea 8) Only an all-perfect being could be the cause of an all-perfect idea so God must exist in order to give rise to my idea of God 9) There is no other possible source, God exists adapted from Bruce Aune's Rationalism, Empiricism, and Pragmatism: An
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