Introduction
Descartes’ career as a philosopher was established when he tried to provide insight into the new scientific ideologies that had been proposed by Galileo. In his first Mediation, he wanted to prove that the actual source of scientific knowledge is the mind and not the senses. He uses three arguments that are related to each other; the dream, the deceiving God and evil demon. Through the course of these arguments, one gets to realize that Descartes actually believes in God since he refers to Him as the source of all knowledge.
Key Concepts
In the dream argument, he states that one cannot distinguish the feelings found in reality from those in dreams since there are no explicit measures to do this (Moreland, 2010). Therefore, it may be possible that we are in a state of dreams and thus our perceptions are not correct. He then introduces the deceiving God argument to further increase doubt. In this argument, he states that human beings believe in a God who is mighty and responsible for all creation (Moreland, 2010). As such, God has the power to deceive us even in aspects such as mathematical solutions which we believe to be correct. It implies that there is a possibility that our perception of the world is also deceived.
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Finally, he brings in the argument of the evil demon to convince those who do not believe that God can deceive us. Instead of presuming that God is the center of all deceptions, it should be assumed that there is an evil demon who takes this role (Moreland, 2010). Consequently, there is a reason to doubt the accuracy of our senses and the mathematical knowledge that we possess (Moreland, 2010). The aforementioned arguments clearly show that Descartes believes in God. He asserts that God has the ability to shape our notions and that he is the source of every knowledge as we know it. In fact, he goes as far as to state that disciplines such as mathematics, which follow a clear methodology, are as a result of God’s deception.
In the second meditation, Descartes aimed to prove that religion and science could be compatible. He argued that the personal beliefs of existence could still be relied upon even if there is an evil demon that tries to deceive our perceptions (Williams, 2014). Descartes stated that if there is a deceiver, the fact that one can be deceived proves our existence (Williams, 2014). It is a possibility that our entire knowledge of the environment including the body could be phony as a consequence of the evil demon’s actions; however, there is no chance that we can be deceived about our existence and the conciseness of human beings (Williams, 2014). He supports this argument by dividing the world into two elements: mind and body. Our existence as individuals lies in our personal thoughts thus our minds are more recognizable than the body. The second mediation is a continuation of Descartes’ search for one entity that he can be sure of, even if this confirms the fact that he cannot be sure of anything. After, rejecting the perception of our senses as the basis of knowledge in the first meditation, he turns to the mind to prove certainty in his second ideology.
Descartes’s mediation also shows his belief in God since he states that there is an evil demon who tries to interfere with our ideologies. The fact that there exists an evil demon shows that God does indeed exist (Williams, 2014). Further, human beings have a conciseness, which originates from God. The existence of a human being lies in one’s mind; this is the basis for religion since God is the one who shapes the thoughts of human beings. Therefore, by showing the correlation between religion and science, Descartes illustrates his belief in God.
Practical Application of Descartes’ Philosophy
While Descartes’s philosophy focuses on religion, it can be used to solve other real-world problems. In my case, I would use to reduce friction among group members who are hindered by rigid thinking. Descartes aims to prove that it is not the lack of ability that hinders individual, rather it is the failure to follow the right path of reasoning. Indeed, he believes that everybody has the “good sense,” which is the ability to differentiate fiction from truth. The application of a method enhances the average mind to a level above the rest, and Descartes regarded himself as a normal thinker elevated by the application of his technique. Whereas he gained form a good education, Descartes believed that book earning also obscured his mind. After completing his school education, he set off to travel to learn from the world itself with an unobscured mind. He develops the inference that every individual possesses a natural light that can be blocked by education and that is critical; to both conduct a study of oneself and to examine the world.
On that account, Descartes asserts that he is going to abandon his previous beliefs since he regarded the science he learned while in school is most probably flawed since it is made up of notions of many different people form different era. Whilst keeping in mind the insight he gained from logic, algebra, and geometry, he comes up with the following guidelines; (1) to never believe anything that he cannot prove himself; (2) to break down every problem to its simplest aspects: (3) to always be organized in his reasoning process and move one from the simplest aspect to the hardest, and (4) to always develop a long pattern of thought and leave nothing out when solving a problem. To that extent, Descartes rational beliefs are the ones that he has formed using his own method since he used it to systematically remove all wrong notions. In applying this philosophy in my group, we would use it to solve problems systematically to reduce friction aiming group members. The aim is to break down a problem to its simplest parts to get a better view of it and come up with effective solutions.
Summary
Both of Descartes arguments present valid points; however, his first Meditation, where he is skeptical seems more logical since it attributes our existence to a super natural being. He asserts that God is the source of knowledge and that he is the force that shapes all of our thoughts; he terms this as deception. In the second meditation, he separates the mind from the body yet this is not logically possible. The two are inter-related since the mind affects the body and vice versa. The thoughts in our minds are realized through the actions of our body while our senses produce some sort of reaction in our minds. Nonetheless, both of Descartes’ mediations showcase his belief his God. He attempts to understand his existence through the arguments; he concludes all of them by stating that the only thing we can be sure of is that there is a higher being who shapes our thoughts on religion and science. Therefore, our perception of reality is shaped in our minds which is created and influenced by God.
References
Moreland, J. P. (2010). Consciousness and the existence of God: A theistic argument . Routledge.
Williams, B. (2014). Descartes: The project of pure enquiry . Routledge.
