Descartes Discourse on the Thinking and Existence - Essay Example

Descartes’ Discourse on the Method Descartes proposes that since everything that we do while awake can also happen when we are asleep, we should doubt everything that we have believed is true. As a result he ventured into meditation to prove his existence. According to Descartes, thinking that one exists and knowing that he/she actually exist are two different scenarios. Thinking is all in the mind and it is the manner through which ones existence comes into being. From his arguments, one can conclude that he is proposing the existence of the soul without the body, and at the same time inexistence of the body without the soul.

This preposition explains why some people believe that upon death, the soul does not die but rather goes back to its creator. Descartes goes ahead to explore the origin of the human thinking ability in order to justify the perfection of knowing than doubting. He explains that by doubting we get to come up with explanations that lead to knowing. This leads him to the conclusion that the ideas of the imaginable things exist within him, but they do not originate from him, rather they are imposed on him by a more perfect being than him (God).

The incorporation of Descartes existence with God is quite convincing. He argues that since he knew more than what actually existed in his conscience, then it meant the extra knowledge was derived from an external source. If the external source did not exist, it should mean that he could not have been the way he was; mortal, changing, finite and impotent. God according to him added unto him the perfection that he needed to erase doubt from his mind. So one’s nature will allow him/her to know as much of God’s nature as he/she could.

Descartes in his quest to discover more about himself ends up proving that God exists. I agree with him because he clearly outlines man’s imperfections, thus looks up to God for guidance in almost everything. However, a person’s thinking limits them within a very short scope of imagination that they end up not questioning what they think is true. We are so much rooted in our cultures and superstitions till we are rendered intellectually impaired. Such cases make the study of the Soul and God complex.

ReferenceDescartes, R. (2010). Discourse on the Method (Part IV). Retrieved from http://www.earlymoderntexts.com/pdf/descdisc.pdf