Keywords
God
truth guarantee
science
foundation
How to Cite
Abstract
In his Discourse of Method, Descartes asserts that God has given us the possibility to distinguish between right and false. This may be a preliminary positive condition for the search for truth in the Meditations. The fact that God is mentioned in the 1st Meditation in connection with truth and falsehood shows that for Descartes God has a well-defined function within the Meditations: to guarantee truth. This becomes clear in the 3rd. Meditation, where the prove of God's existence is based on our experience of contingency as limitation, and this is only possible in relation to the infinite God whose image is our mind itself. Hence, the proof of God's existence is not an invalid causal conclusion from pure contingency to a completely different ontological realm, for God's infinity is already present in us in the form of his idea. Therefore the conclusion is valid. On the other hand, the so called ontological proof of the 5th Meditation has no more validity than mathematical truths, but it shows that the intimate connection between existence and essence in God is the ultimate source for all necessary truths, i.e. the laws of mathematics and sciences, since, as established at the end of the 5th Meditation, God guarantees remembered clear and distinct ideas. This is means that science cannot be founded only on presently known insights but needs God in order to be.
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