Response to the three Meditation questions
You have to respond to the three Meditation questions . (approximately 150 words, although these will be evaluated more in terms of how well they address the question, rather than on length). make the answer as A,B, and C NOT paragraphs — Texts that we use in this course: Plato “Apology”, “Crito” “Euthyphro” (all in Grube translation of Plato: Five Dialogues or The Trial and Death of Socrates) Descartes Meditations on First Philosophy Hume An Inquiry Concerning Human Understanding
1) Meditation Three
Descartes’ argument for the existence of God is pretty hard to understand, and even harder to accept. (I have put under the “Resources” tab some information that should help.) I don’t expect you to get too far into this argument, nor am I sure it is worth the effort (at least in an
Introduction to Philosophy course). With that said:
What is the basic idea of Descartes’ proof of the existence of God in Meditation III? In other words, what is the fundamental move he makes in going from what he has established in Meditation II to think he has provided a demonstration, or proof, of the existence of God?
2) Meditation four
In my traditional (not online) version of this course, we use Meditation IV to test your ability to read some philosophy on your own. I will be doing that here as well. So rather than offering any explanations or suggestions, I offer a fairly brief, basic question about this Meditation, to see if you are making progress in meeting one of our course goals: to be able to read philosophical material on your own. Descartes proves that he exists as a thinking, judging thing and that he knows his mind better than anything else at that point (Meditation II). In Meditation III, he claims to have proved the existence of an all-perfect creator—namely, God. With that as background, explain how Meditation IV accounts for the fact that human beings make mistakes. In other words, if I am created by an all-perfect being, why—according to Meditation IV—do I make mistakes?
3) Meditation five
Many of my students think Descartes is repetitive; generally, we discover that if something seems to be repeated, he is making a different, distinct point (possibly with subtle differences). However, one thing he definitely does twice is prove the existence of God; he provides one kind of proof in Meditation III, and a different kind of proof in Meditation V. This proof, which Descartes “borrowed” from St. Anselm, is now known as the “ontological argument,” a label given to it by the 18th-century German philosopher Immanuel Kant.
1) Outline a general version of the argument Descartes offers in Meditation V.
2) Rather than offering a straightforward evaluation of the argument, consider why this argument has been so popular; Anselm died in 1109ce, and this argument continues to be popular among some philosophers and theologians in 2018. Why do you think it has survived this long? Why does it seem persuasive to some very smart people?
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