Term
Descartes 4:1
Introduction to Meditations Four
The degrees of knowledge. |
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Definition
- There is very little we can know of corporeal objects.
- We can know more about the human mind.
- We can know even more about God.
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Term
Meditations 4:1 b
What are the properties of the human mind? |
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Definition
- It is a thinking thing
- It is not extended in terms of length, breadth or depth.
- It participates in none of the properties of the body.
From previous meditations: It is also indivisible. |
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Term
Mediations 4:1 (c)
Summary at the start of Meditation Four that affirms the existence of God. Why does he say that God exists? |
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Definition
- I doubt
- I am an incomplete and dependent being
- The idea of God occurs to my mind with clarity and distinctness
- My own existence (duration) absolutely depends on God (continued creation)
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Term
Meditations 4:2
His first assumption is that he cannot err in perceiving objects. Why? |
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Definition
- If all I possess be from God, and God never planted any faculty in me that is deceitful, then I cannot fall into error.
- If I think only of God, and turn wholly to him, I discover in myself no cause for error or falsity.
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Term
Meditation 4:4 (b)
Upon reflection, is he after all subject to error? How does he know that he is subject to error? Is God the only thing that is present to his awareness? |
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Definition
- Experience tells him that he is subject to error.
- Why? Because the positive idea of God is not the only thing in his awareness.
- There is also a negative awareness of nothing - and by that he means that there are ideas in his mind that are very far from the idea of perfection. (He shares the notion with St. Augustine that good=being, bad=nothingness).
- He is someplace between being and non-being. And though he has a notion of perfection, he has many imperfections, and is therefore prone to error.
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Term
Meditations 4:4 (c)
Does God cause error in some way? |
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Definition
- No. An error is not something real which depends on God for existence (duration), but a deficiency.
- Therefore, we don't need to be given a faculty expressly for this end by God.
- Error arises from the fact that the will that God gave me is not perfect.
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Term
Meditations 4:5
Is error a pure negation (a want of knowledge that we may or may not possess)? |
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Definition
No. It is the want of knowledge which we should possess. |
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Term
Meditations 4:5-6
Did God make me with a built-in deficiency that causes me to err? |
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Definition
- The nature of God makes it impossible to conceive that he would have implanted a deficiency in us.
- He could have created me such that I could never be deceived.
- But he also wills what is best for me.
- Can I then assume that is is better for me to be able to be deceived (than not)?
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Term
Meditations 4:5-6
God could have made me so that I cannot be deceived. He also wills what is best for me. Does this lead us to assume that it is better for us to be deceivable? |
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Definition
- Don't be surprised if you cannot always comprehend the things God does.
- Don't doubt his existence because you don't understand everything.
- I know that I am weak and finite, and that he is great and infinite; therefore I have no difficulty in accepting that he does things that I cannot comprehend.
- I cannot discover the impenetrable ends of Deity.
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Term
Meditations 4:7
Should we consider other creatures apart from God and ourselves? |
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Definition
| We should consider all his creatures together in order to discover our own place in creation. Even though we determined that we are only sure of God's and our own existence, still we need to consider, in the light of his perfection, that he may have made other creatures. |
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Term
Meditations 4:8
What two factors are the cause of error in me? |
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Definition
"facultate cognoscendi quae in me est, & a facultate eligendi," i.e. the faculty of cognition and the election of the power of free choice.
Okay, understanding and will.
It isn't will alone, not understanding alone, but a combination of both.
Will is broader in scope than understanding, and error occurs when I will more than I can understand. The will is indifferent to whether somehting is understood or not. |
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