Rene Descartes Fifth Meditation Analysis

In his fifth meditation, Rene Descartes gives an argument that he believes proves the existence of god from a purely intellectual, non-empirical framework. His ontological argument attempts to prove the mere concept of god is evidence for his existence. Although Descartes portrays the meditations as starting with no preconceived notions, his own biased definition of necessary qualities is the cause of fault within this work. Upon examining the disjoint comparison made between the mathematical nature of triangles and the inherent nature of god, it becomes evident that viewing the qualities in question as equal is the fuel for the opposing argument. Descartes begins his attempt to prove the existence of god from an abstract foundation by first reflecting on the nature of god, …show more content…
At the time of writing the fifth meditation, Descartes was a living human being who has lived only one life and by necessity has never died. Descartes cannot remember or reflect on any experiences he had outside the realm of existence, and from such his knowledge of existence is limited to someone from the “inside looking in”. Descartes, as an imperfect human being, is not in a position to assert which qualities are perfect and extended to god, as Descartes is not a perfect being. His claim that the quality of existence is a perfect quality of god cannot be stated as Descartes cannot reflect on the experience of not existing. Descartes, has never directly observed any object outside of the confines of the universe we live in now. He cannot without doubt claim to fully understand the nature of existence, when he cannot remember what the state of not existing is akin to. Existence cannot be extended as a necessary quality to god in the manner that the interior sum of the angles of a triangle must sum to 180