God, Descartes and the Cartesian Circle

God, Descartes and the Cartesian Circle

Descartes used two arguments to prove Go exists and both can be called into question. His first argument, known as the Trademark Argument, states that since we have an idea of God in our mind, it must have come from somewhere. Where did it come from? Descartes' answer is that God implanted it there as a kind of trademark. Descartes believes God is the cause and the idea is the effect--something cannot come from nothing. Descartes believes that God is benevolent and would not want to deceive Man. Descartes' other argument is the Ontological Argument discussed earlier on this DB--that since God is perfect, God must exist because if God weren't perfect, he wouldn't exist.

The Trademark Argument is vulnerable to criticism in that there is an assumption that there must be at least as much reality in the cause of something as in its effect--this is needed to move from the reality of the /idea/ of God to the reality /of/ God. This assumption can be challenged by the example that scientists can now explain how life evolved from inanimate matter: we don't find it obvious that life can only be caused by living things.

The Ontological Argument can be challenged since the basis of the idea is that of trying to define God into existence. It assumes existence is a property, like omniscience (all-knowing) or omnipotent (all-powerful) rather that what it really is--the /condition/ of having these properties at all.

Finally, Descartes' argument is circular. This is known as the Cartesian Circle. Descartes states that clear and distinct ideas are reliable sources of knowledge because they are vouchsafed by a benevolent God--and God does not deceive; but God's existence is only proved by relying on knowledge given from clear and distinct ideas--a vicious circle.


Response to What is the Soul?

If the body and the mind are two distinct things; the body being physical while the mind being mental (and non-physical), then how does the non-physical interact with the physical?

If one believes in evolution--that human beings evolved from simpler life forms, then did these simpler life forms, such as an amoebae also have minds or non-physical things? Of course, it can be argued that the simpler minds evolved into what the human mind (or soul-the non-physical thing) has become. Is not the mind simply a physical part of the interaction of the brain with the body?

Let me state that I am not attempting to set up a straw-man here so I can knock it down. I am trying to understand what it is we mean when we say the 'soul.' Is it the consciousness, the mind, is tai non-physical, and if it is neither, but a third entity, how does it interact, if at all, with the physical?