(Originally written February 13, 2006 in Book 21)
Soul: Res Cogitons (thinking thing)
Body: Res Extensa (extending thing)
Three kinds of ideas:
1) Innate (ideas born within)
2) Alien (ideas that come from without)
3) Manufactured (made up by me)
How do I know that my alien ideas resemble actual objects?
"Nature teaches me so", but the problem is my inclinations sometimes deceive me
"Ideas are independent of my will", but this is also true in my dreams
Solipsism: only me and my thoughts are real (metaphysical version)
Solipsism: I can only know my own self and thoughts (epistemological version)
Solipsism is Descartes' best argument he can offer as what I can know. Thus, he must prove a God exists to show us that other things exist outside of our mind.
Descartes 4th Meditation: Truth and Falsity
All truth rests on the most certain knowledge that God exists.
God can never deceive me because then God would become imperfect and thus, not God.
I have the ability to judge which comes from God and since God does not deceive me. He would not give me a way of deceiving myself.
I am somewhere between God (Supreme Being) and nothingness (non-Being) God's creation of me makes me infallible but since I am in contact and of the realm of non-being and not supreme myself it is no wonder I make mistakes.
Error is a lack of some knowledge which should be in me.
It should be no surprise that men do not fully understand God's actions. Man's nature is weak and limited while God's nature is immense and unlimited.
It is futile to investigate the purposes of God.
When contemplating the perfection of God's creation, we must look at the universe in whole. An isolated creature may deem imperfect, but when it is part of a perfectly working universe it's perfection is apparent.
First knowledge: I exist
Second knowledge: God exists because I had to be created (caused)
Third knowledge: Other things exist because God has immense power and I cannot deny that many other things have been made by Him
Errors depend on two things
1) The faculty of knowledge which is in me
2) The faculty of choice on freedom of the will
Errors depend on both the intellect and the will simultaneously
The source of my errors is not any knowledge (intellect) or my power of understanding because these are perfect (that is they come from God). The source of my mistakes is "wider than that of the intellect; but instead of restarting it within the same limits, I extend its use to matters which I do not understand" (Pojman, 512). The will is indifferent of the lack of intellect in these cases and can easily turn away from what is true or good and thus, it is the source of my error and sin.
The intellect is incomplete and thus in cases when I am wholly ignorant or in cases when I am not intellectually clear of something at the time when the will asserts itself I am prone to error and sin.
If I choose (make a judgment) without sufficient knowledge the erroneous conclusion I obviously sin or err, but if I choose the correct conclusion I only come to it by chance. I am still erroneous in choosing the correct conclusion because the intellect should always priced the determination of the will.
I can't complain that my power to know is not great enough because it is the nature of a created being to be finite and therefore not supremely powerful to know all things.
Rather than complaining I should give thanks to Him who never owed me anything but still chose to give me the gift of intellect.
I also cannot complain that my will extends wider than my intellect because the wider my will is the more freedom of choice I have, and the more reason I have to give thanks.
I cannot state my errors are a result of God depriving me of knowledge. The very fact that I can make judgments (true or false) gives me a greater sense of perfection than I would have if I had not been granted these gifts.
If God had made me more capable of knowing, I would totally be closer to perfection, but the universe would not be affected. And since the universe as a whole is a sign of God's perfection in creation, I cannot complain about my ability.
Even as imperfect as I am, I can still avoid error by withholding judgment in cases in which I am not intellectually sufficient to comprehend.
When I limit the will to the confines and restraints of my intellect I cannot go wrong.
Descartes 5th Meditation
"The Essence of material things, and the existence of God considered a second time"
Whatever is true is something and cannot be nothing.
Existence and essence in God can be separated in my mind, but on closer attention this proves impossible.
My thinking something does not institute a necessity for that something's existence.
The existence of God causes me to think of the existence of God. If God did not exist I would not think of his existence.
The idea of God is innate in me.
After establishing God's existence by knowing innately the idea of a perfect, Supreme being it follows that apart from God there is nothing else of which I am capable of thinking such that existence belongs to its essence. I cannot understand how there can be two or more Supreme beings because there can be only one eternal God and while I can perceive the attributes of God, I cannot alter or remove them from Him.
Even if the knowledge of God's existence was not innate, it is so self-evident I would arrive at this knowledge prior to any other knowledge.
Without the knowledge of God, all other knowledge is prone to doubt and knowledge becomes shiftable and restless.
Descartes' Sixth Meditation
The existence of material things, and the real distinction between mind and body"
Material things have the capability to exist insofar as they are subject-matter in pure mathematics and anything I can perceive God is capable of creating.
Imagination requires an effort not needed in understanding.
When the mind understands it turns towards itself and inspects of the ideas within it. When the mind imagines it turns towards the body and looks at something in the body which conforms to an idea understood in the mind or perceived by the senses.
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