Decarts and existence of evil - Essay Example

His argument hinges on the fact that knowledge of God is anchored on a distinct idea on the existence of a supreme being (Marion, 2008). There must be the existence of an idea first before a given claim can be verified. For Descartes, this distinct idea resided in his mind. It is this idea that gave him the essence of God as a devine. It is an idea that could not be verified through empirical methods. The existence of an Evil Demon, in line with the thinking of Descartes, can only obtain if it is backed by a distinct idea.

  There must first exist the essence of the Evil Demon that is crystallized into Descartes mind in order for him to make a claim about the existence of such a being. One of the arguments upheld by Descartes is that essence implies existence. It would follow logically that the absence of essence effectively negates all possibilities of existence. Without the essence of the Evil Demon in distinct form it would be pointless to assert any claim of such an existence. Therefore, this would mean that Descartes could claim the existence of God but refrain from making any suggestions on whether or not some Evil Demon actually exists (Marion, 2008).. Proof of such existence could be gained from other arguments, or by using some logical claims outside the boundaries established by Descartes methods.

  Descartes knowledge of God was based on the theory of natural/extant ideas. He believed that it is possible for things to exist without their very nature of existence being verified by a form of proof. According to Descartes, the mind can generate knowledge of its own through the power of logic. The practice of intuition basically demands aligning the mind to the essence of ideas without establishing the evidence of experience or other methods that would be preferred by logicians to prove such facts.

The existence of God, according to Descartes, is a “gift”  In this way, the knowledge of such must be based on distinct