Descartes argument for making mistakes in his third meditation in Meditation on First Philosophy is that human beings can make errors, even though God gave them perfect faculties. These mistakes are caused by our own will or free choice, which has a much broader scope …show more content…
Descartes believes that, “[he] has no cause for complaint on the grounds that God has not given me a greater power of understanding or a greater light of nature than he has, for it is the essence of a finite intellect, not to understand many things, and is of the essence of a created intellect to be finite” (Cress 40). Here Descartes is saying that while our will and free choice is infinite, our intellect is finite. Human beings are not able to comprehend all that we are able to do, and as a result, we will pass judgement on things that he does not fully understand. Our will has a tendency to surpass our intellect which causes us to make errors. Descartes believes that, “if I hold off from making a judgement when I do not perceive what is true with sufficient clarity and distinctness, it is clear that I am acting properly and am not committing an error” (Cress 40). Here he is saying that if he refrains from