Essay on Descartes Meditation Four

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Dalene Fulk
Cypress Philo 100 Descartes Meditation Four
3-13-14

The Meditator reasons in his Meditation Four that it is impossible for God to ever deceive him since deception and trickery are indicators of some level of imperfection and that the ability to betray, defraud, cheat or victimize is also an indication of cleverness and power and further the will to deceive must surely show a weakness. The Meditator further says "deception is incompatible with God"(page 36). The Meditator arrives at the conclusion that God exists and thereby his own existence depends wholly upon him at every instant. He has an aptitude of judgment which like everything else inside of him had to have been given to him by God and since he would not wish to deceive him, he assuredly has not given him the sort of aptitude with which he could ever make a mistake when properly applied. The Meditator further states that if he only thinks solely of God, he will never misjudge. However, when his focus turns back to himself he is subject to a myriad or errors and therefore he feels his aptitude of judgment is finite and thereby why he makes mistakes. God is perfection and I agree with Descartes when he says God is the only thing perfect in our lives. Our free will is what makes us imperfect as Descartes states and I completely agree. He says as long as his eye is on God his thoughts and actions will be perfect but that when he thinks

Paper 2

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