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July 27, 2005

Ch.IV. Q.25. Argument of Descartes

THE argument of Descartes is as follows: "We have the idea of an infinitely perfect Being. As we are finite, that idea could not have originated with us. As we are conversant only with the finite, it could not have originated from anything around us. It must, therefore, have come from God, whose existence is thus a necessary assumption."1

2. Descartes says elsewhere: "Notiones nostras esse aut adventitias, aut factitias, aut innatas. Ideam de Deo non esse adventitiam, Deum enim non experientia duce reperiri; neque factitiam, nam non arbitrio a nobis affictam esse: ergo esse innatam, sive a Deo ipso nobis suppeditatam."2

3. The difference between the argument of St. Anselm and that of Descartes is that the former supposes the existence of God to be involved in our idea of Him, while the latter infers the existence of God to account for the idea.3 The latter is really a posteriori, and is subject to the limitations of such arguments.4

1 Descartes, Meditations, Prop. ii.; Hodge, Syst. Theol., Vol. I., p. 205; Pearson, De Deo, iii., pp. 27-30; Bowen, Mod. Philos., pp. 27 et seq.

2 Prop, iii., iv.

3 Hodge, p. 206.

4 Bowen, as above.

Posted by Debra Bullock at July 27, 2005 11:03 PM

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