Descartes's did not just say God is perfect so he must exist. Of course that was one of his reasons but he also reasons God's existence by comparing it to a triangle's existence. Referring to a triangle Descartes says in the middle of paragraph 5, "...a triangle, it was necessary for its three angles to be equal to two right angles, but I did not see anything in all this to assure me that there was any triangle existing in the world......God, who is this perfect being, is or exists, as any demonstration in geometry could be." What Descartes's is trying to demonstrate is that we may have never seen a true triangle out in the world before but we still have the idea of a triangle in our mind and we know what a triangle is. So just because we do not see a triangle does that mean it does not exist? Or just because we do not see God does that mean he does not exist? Thus, he reasons that God exists just as any "demonstration in geometry" exists.
-Lindsay
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I believe what Descartes is trying to say that anything you think of can be, just because you thought of it. Since everything that exists now was first something that someone had to think of to make it happen. In the discourse Descartes said that he things that even if a thought comes just in a dream it doesn't mean that the matter of the thought does not exists. This comment made me think thats what Descartes was trying to say.
To Kate: Yep, however anything you think of can also have falsity to it. He uses the example that we can imagine in our minds of a lion's head on a goat's body, however, does that mean there is a chimera in the world? Thus, we posess both the truth and the false. And the real problem is distiguishing the truth from the false.
good on that--every thought has the capacity for truth and falsity. i wonder whether you think the triangle example works to make his point?
I personally think that if you have a strong belief in God than this triangle example works. However, for those who are in doubt (like me), it does not work. Even though I don't necessarily believe it, the comparison really makes you think about the world you live in. How do you determine what is true and what is false? How does one's mind sort out all the information and decide? I find his comparison to be very interesting, but I do not think you can compare God's existence to a demonstration in Geometry. Unless of course God represents something else.
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