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fandomhigh2005-10-27 10:19 pm
brambless.livejournal.com) wrote in fandomhigh2005-10-27 10:19 pm
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'The Philosophers', Week 2, Thursday 2-4pm
Last week we started to talk about Rene Descartes, who tried to prove that anything actually exists.
We're not done with him yet, folks.
Descartes was a very religious man, and was fundamentally discomforted by the concept that God might not exist, so he sought to prove the existence of God. His ethnocentrism caused him to unconsciously specify that 'God' is both all knowing, and perfectly good.
To this end, he came up with three arguments.
1. Argument by Design: Descartes said that this world is just too neatly fit together to have happened coincidentally. If you find a watch on a beach, it makes more sense to accept that someone must have made the watch than that the watch is a random product of tidal forces.
2. Transcending the Finite: Descartes himself is a finite being, with a beginning and an end, as is everything else we are able to actually observe in the universe. Descartes argued that the idea of the infinite was a signature, left by God, because only an infinite being would be able to come up with the concept of infinity.
3. Multiple Realities: There are infinite possibile realities, and amongst these, anything we can conceive of exists. We can conceive of God, ergo in one of these realities, God exists. However, because God is all powerful, God cannot be held captive by any one reality. If God exists anywhere, God exists everywhere.
Your task for the day is to choose one of these theories, and discuss it, including finding a counter argument if possible.
We're not done with him yet, folks.
Descartes was a very religious man, and was fundamentally discomforted by the concept that God might not exist, so he sought to prove the existence of God. His ethnocentrism caused him to unconsciously specify that 'God' is both all knowing, and perfectly good.
To this end, he came up with three arguments.
1. Argument by Design: Descartes said that this world is just too neatly fit together to have happened coincidentally. If you find a watch on a beach, it makes more sense to accept that someone must have made the watch than that the watch is a random product of tidal forces.
2. Transcending the Finite: Descartes himself is a finite being, with a beginning and an end, as is everything else we are able to actually observe in the universe. Descartes argued that the idea of the infinite was a signature, left by God, because only an infinite being would be able to come up with the concept of infinity.
3. Multiple Realities: There are infinite possibile realities, and amongst these, anything we can conceive of exists. We can conceive of God, ergo in one of these realities, God exists. However, because God is all powerful, God cannot be held captive by any one reality. If God exists anywhere, God exists everywhere.
Your task for the day is to choose one of these theories, and discuss it, including finding a counter argument if possible.