Descartes Meditation

Descartes Meditation

Descartes opinionates that it is challenging to convince the infidels of God’s existence without offering natural proof. He demonstrates that non-believers have faith in things they can see, touch, experience, and derive knowledge rationally. In his perspective, believing in God requires faith without understanding or seeing. For example, no one certainly knows whether there is life after death, but through faith, Christians believe the soul departs from the body. Descartes uses the phrase ‘reasoning proceeded in a circle’ to mean it is counterproductive. Believers use faith to prove God’s existence, while non-believers use natural proofs to show otherwise. Convincing either group to cross over to the other side of the argument is impossible due to a lack of concrete evidence.

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Assignment

Your assignment is to first read the short pdf posted for this week.  The reading is an excerpt from René Descartes’ Meditation on First Philosophy, one of the most famous books in philosophy! Please read carefully and think about the circular argument he alludes to on page 2 of the reading.

Descartes Meditation

There in paragraph 2, on page two, in that long sentence Descartes writes: “…..and although it is quite true that the existence of God is to be believed ……nevertheless, this cannot be submitted to infidels, who consider the reasoning proceeded in a circle.”

Think about what Descartes means in this particular sentence. Descartes notices that the people who do not believe in God will not easily be convinced that God exists.  Why? What is the argument presented to the non-believers?

Descartes is calling this argument “reasoning proceeded in a circle.”  What does he mean?

You can access this link for another example of a circular argument:

• https://www.logicallyfallacious.com/logicalfallacies/Circular-Reasoning

Now that you have an idea of what a circular argument is, write a 100-word response to the circular argument Descartes describes.  Say why Descartes is critical of a circular argument.  What’s wrong with an argument that “goes in circles”?

*Note on Plagiarism: Remember, you can’t plagiarize.  You need to use your own words. You will get an F for any assignment that is plagiarized.

After you post your response in the discussion forum, please read what other students wrote.  Then, select two students and respond to those two students, in 50 words per student.  In your responses to the two students you can say for example why you agree or why you disagree with the student