Philosophy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 5

Philosophy - Essay Example He is separate from the mere idea of God, in the sense that all reality is contained with Him. On this idea of perfection, there is a hierarchy of perfection that begins with the purely subjective and ending with the ultimate reality, which Descartes equates with God. Descartes believes people experience an idea of the most perfect being and that existence is more perfect than existence in thought alone. Using both of these premises, Descartes concludes that the most perfect being (that is, God) exists in reality, not merely in thought. The argument is intuitively appealing, since people tend to see existence as more perfect than nonexistent. Despite this intuition, however, an entity cannot possess a characteristic (such as â€Å"being perfect†) unless that entity already exists. Accordingly, those things that do not exist cannot retain the property of perfect or imperfection. Existence serves as a precondition of perfection, not as something that occurs simultaneous to it. D escartes thinks that it is impossible to conceive of a most perfect being that does not have the characteristic of existence. Nevertheless, people, in fact, have the idea of this most perfect being. Descartes argument begs the question by basing all of existence on God and then using the premise that existence in reality is more perfect than existence in thought alone.