Descartes' Method of Doubt and the Existence of God

Descartes' Method of Doubt

To construct this imaginary tree, we start by looking into metaphysics, a foothold firm and sure, an absolute truth on which it can rely to keep on climbing. For this, a method that uses the idea as a guide: the method of doubt or the evidence. It has four rules:

1. Evidence: Accept as true only the obvious (intuitive). Everything has to possess two obvious characteristics: clarity and distinction.
2. Analysis: Break down problems into simple parts, do not address them in complex ways.
3. Synthesis: After analyzing the simple parts, rebuild the complex and confirm or not its validity.
4. Enumeration: Check (list) all our steps to make sure that we were not wrong.

The Process of Doubt

I suspect that it remains high, especially considering it wrong at first. On his way to absolute truth, he passes through three stages known as the "Process of Doubt":

1. Doubt of the Senses: He questioned the information that the senses offer us, the qualities of objects (which are what we see vary), not their existence.
2. Doubt of Physical Objects: He goes on to doubt also the existence of bodies (including ours), based on the hypothesis of the dream as embodied by Calderón de la Barca in "La vida es sueño": that life can be a dream, just like the dreams we have, and we believe in them while we are certain, but we are not aware of them as false until awakening.
3. Doubt of Reason: Finally, he also doubts our ability to reason, exposing the evil genius hypothesis or deceiving God: there could be a powerful being deceiving us and laughing at us to see how we believe to be right, which prevents us from reasoning properly.

After passing through these stages, there is a truism with which neither the alleged evil genius could be deceiving us: because he thinks, he is ("Cogito, ergo sum" - "I think, therefore I am"). This obvious truth (not deduction) is not refutable by the possible existence of an evil genius, since he alone could stop him from thinking it is true, but not from thinking (and therefore, whatever). As of now, the foundation of man ceases to be God to be passed to humans (human basis), so theologies give way to science (God starts to die), and human sciences are becoming increasingly important.

The Existence of God

The problem for Descartes is that if there were an evil God, no reasoning could go beyond this first truth newly discovered ("I think"), since all that we thought could be false. Therefore, given the need to rely on his reason, he attempts to prove the existence of a good God as a guarantee, using three arguments based on the innate idea of perfection (he divides ideas into adventitious [seem to come from abroad], factitious [come from the imagination], and innate [are created spontaneously by reason]):

• Epistemological Argument (St. Augustine): We are imperfect because we doubt, but we have the idea of perfection. Therefore, it had to be placed in us by a supremely perfect being (so that there is cause and effect): God.
• Argument from Causality (Thomas Aquinas): We are contingent and imperfect because we have the cause of our existence in others on whom we depend. Therefore, there must be a first necessary being that does not depend on another, which itself is due to start the chain: God.
• Ontological Argument (St. Anselm): God's essence implies its existence, since the concept "God" implies perfection, and among the characteristics of perfection is existence.

Having demonstrated the existence of God, he is showing his goodness. This equates perfection with truth, and lying with imperfection: as God is perfect, he has to tell the truth, so he is good.

This allows you to redo the route followed in the process of doubt, since after demonstrating the existence of a good God, you can rely on your reason, as you can rely on physical objects, and even some of their qualities.