Compare and contrast the contributions of Descartes and Humes on the issue of the existence of God

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Comaparison of Descartes view on god

When it comes to the existence of God many theologians and philosophers have argued both for and against the existence of God. In this essay I will critically assess both Descartes argument for the existence of God and Hume’s objections to the existence for God.

There are six arguments which are used to try prove the existence of God:

  1. Ontological – Starting from the definition of God
  2. Cosmological – Starting from facts of the physical world
  3. Teleological – Starting from the design of the world
  4. Moral – Starting from the human sense of morality
  5. Religious Experience – Starting from religious experience
  6. The argument from Miracles

The Ontological argument attempts to prove the existence of God through abstract reasoning alone. It concludes that God’ definition entails his existence. The Ontological argument is the only argument that is  a priori because the premises for the argument  are prior to any experience of the world, and are not verified by any experience. ‘Ontological’ literally means ‘concerned with being’. This argument was classically propounded by Anselm, but it was criticised by both Aquinas and Kant and had supporters such as Descartes.

The Ontological argument appeals more to believers in God then to an atheist because an atheist may not accept the first premise of the argument. Because  the Ontological argument has an a priori argument as its grounds, it is a logically argument hat either completely succeeds or completely fails.

The propositions of the argument are analytic because the predicate is contained in the subject; this means the statement  clarifies the term God. To speak of God as a perfect being is to imply that he exists.

Descartes Ontological Argument- Meditations 5

  • I have an idea of God, a supremely perfect being, who has all perfections
  • Existence is part of perfection.

Therefore God a supremely perfect being exists

Meditations 5 argued that there are some qualities an object had or else it could not be defined as that object. Descartes used a triangle as an example, the three angles have to add up to 180 degrees or the shape could not be defined as a triangle. In the same way existence can’t be seperated from the concept of God. According to Descartes that would be a contradiction.

However Kant objects to Descartes by claiming that there would no contradiction if one was to reject both the subject and predicate.

Kant wrote in ‘Critique of pure reason’

‘It would be self contradictory to posit a triangle and yet reject its three angles, but there is no contradiction in rejecting the triangle together with its three angles’

But Descartes reply is to agree this is true when it concerns a triangle, but false when it comes to God. Descartes argues that for God existence is part of essence.

However Kant objects even further by claiming that Descartes treats existence like a property. For example the same way you talk about an apple being red is the same way Descartes talks about God existing. Kant argues that treating existence like a property don’t make sense because he claims existence is not a predicate.

Therefore according to Kant Descartes Ontological argument for the existence of God doesn’t work.

Hume also objects to Descartes argument, he  claims the argument seems to be assuring the existence of God through its definition. One could argue this implies one can define anything into existence.

Hume wrote in ‘Dialogues concerning Natural Religion’

However much our concept of an object we may contain, we must go outside it to determine whether it exists. We cannot just define something into existence – even if it has all the perfections one can imagine.

Hume would also object to Descartes by using his ‘fork’ from ‘An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding’.

Hume’s ‘fork’ two claims

  1. All knowledge can be neatly divided in ‘relations of ideas’ and ‘matters of fact’. This means that statements are either analytic or synthetic. Analytic statements analysis the meaning of words, for example ‘All vixens are female’. Synthetic statements are statements that aren’t analytic.
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  1. ‘Relations of Ideas’ can be known a priori, by intuition or deduction. This applies to geometry, algebra and arithmetic. Whereas ‘Matters of Fact’ are only known from experience, in other words there are no synthetic a priori truths, this applies to matter of the world. For example just because the sun rose today how do you know it will rise tomorrow.

Hume fork implies that you can’t deductively prove anything about the world, and this objects to Descartes Ontological argument.

However Kant objects to Hume‘s ‘fork’ because he claims that there are synthetic priori truths. Kant ...

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