DESCARTES' ARGUMENT FOR THE EXISTENCE OF CORPOREAL
OBJECTS
1. God exists and is not a deceiver
2. I have a strong inclination to believe that some of my ideas are
caused by corporeal objects.
3. God has not given me a faculty with which I can determine the
origin or cause of these ideas.
4. I do not see how he could be defended from the accusation of
deceit if those ideas were produced by causes other than
corporeal objects.
5. Therefore, corporeal objects exist and are the cause of some of
my ideas.
Reasoning behind the arguments:
What Descartes is saying is that he believes some of his ideas are
caused by corporeal objects (like an apple). God has not made him so he
is able to distinguish if these ideas come from something besides the
corporeal object (apple). So since god has not told him anything
different than he believes his ideas come from the corporeal object
(apple), because if the idea did come from something else besides the
apple, he could hold god for deception. and since god is not a deceiver.
corporeal objects must exist.
Critical evaluation of the arguments:
I think his argument is quite faulty for many reasons the first which is
still quite vivid in my mind is the fact that a being besides god may be
deceiving Descartes. Since the being is not god, god can not be held for
deception, so corporeal objects may or may not exist.
The second is how do we know that god is not a deceiver. I know,
Descartes would say that deception is a negative quality and would take
away from the perfection of god. But, how do we know deception is a
negative quality, perhaps it is a positive quality used to deceive
Descartes or other people for his or their own good.
