Descartes believed that these ideas need not correspond to anything real. This can be illustrated with an example: The cause of X must contain at least as much reality as X.If X contained nothing that was not in the cause, then something would have been created out of nothing ,which is absurd. This same example Descartes states could be applied to ideas. Our ideas of trees, unicorns, sun etc are all caused by us, since these ideas do not have greater reality than what we have. In other words, we could have the idea of trees and unicorns, even if these do not exist. Descartes also believed that ideas could never be erroneous but the judgments for these ideas could be erroneous. Finally Descartes concludes that anything which we can know with clarity and distinctness is true. If clarity and distinctness indicated a sure sign of truth, then we could have the early stages of a path out of the skeptical morass.
B) Existence of God
According to Descartes his idea of god consists of eternal, all knowing, infinite, allpowerful etc.Since his idea of god consists of all these factors, Descartes states that these ideas weren’t created by him. He believed that his idea of god might have been created by something outside him, something that has at least as much reality as the idea. He believed that the idea of an infinite must emerge from an infinite source; idea of all powerful must come from an all-powerful source and so on. Thus he concludes by saying” God is the source of my idea of god and therefore god exits”. Descartes also believed that god had formal as well as objective reality.
Trademark Argument
The trademark argument is the first argument for Descartes through which Descartes proves about the existence of god. This first argument for god is termed as “trademark argument” since the idea of god is stamped on our heads just like a designer logo. According to Descartes” Just as the craftsman leaves a mark of his work, similarly god leaves a mark on every soul that is created and this mark indicates the idea of god. In other words, god himself has put his own trademark into our heads. “It is no surprise that God, in creating me, should have placed this idea in me to be, as it were, the mark of the craftsman stamped on his work “(Descartes page 34 Para: 51).
The Trademark Argument arises out of the fact claimed by Descartes that there is within each of us, an idea of a supreme being, which was placed within us by the thing that created us. The purpose of this idea was to act as the mark of a tradesman placed within us. From examination of this idea, it follows, says Descartes, that God exists. His argument firstly involves the acknowledgement of such an idea within us. This idea of God is one of a being who is "eternal, infinite, omniscient, omnipotent, and the Creator of all things that exist apart from him." (Descartes pg30: Para45).This is the first phase of the argument (although, this has not yet shown that anything corresponding to the idea exists). Secondly, there is the "Causal Adequacy Principle." This principle implies that any object must have as its cause something that contains at least all the attributes of the object if not more. Descartes offers the example of a stone, saying that it cannot be produced by anything that doesn't contain everything to be found in the stone. Descartes also applies the Causal Adequacy Principle to ideas. He claims that, just as the cause of objects must contain at least as much reality as the object itself, the cause of an idea must contain at least as much reality, whether "formally" or "eminently" as the idea itself ("formally" meaning actually as represented in the idea; "eminently" meaning in some higher form).
Taking into consideration, the above mentioned phases, Descartes concludes about the existence of god. He states:” Since it has already been established that this more perfect idea of infiniteness cannot come from this less perfect idea of finiteness. Therefore the idea of god could not have originated from Descartes alone”. Descartes believed that he himself cannot be the cause of the idea, as he acknowledges that he is imperfect and ignorant of many things. Hence, the ultimate cause of Descartes’ idea of God must possess all the attributes that Descartes perceives it to have, and therefore it can be concluded that God necessarily exists. He also states that the idea of god’s existence is immediate, intuitive, prior to his cogito and is not deduced.
Thus after going through the above “trademark argument”, I can conclude that it neither proves nor disproves the existence of god.