Q&A: Descartes and the Ontological Proof
Descartes and the Ontological Proof
Question
Descartes argued that I have the concept of God within me, and it cannot be that I created it myself, since I am finite. Only an all-encompassing infinite being could implant this concept in me. From this he concludes that such a being exists.
If I understood him correctly, my question is: what is the problem with saying that I know the concept of the “finite,” and therefore I created its opposite concept, the “infinite,” even though I do not actually know it?
Like what I heard about a white hole in astrophysics: people know about a black hole and created a hypothetical reverse of it, even though they have never seen one. (May the astrophysicists forgive me if this is unrelated 🙂 )
Answer
Indeed, there is no problem. I have written here more than once that the anthropological argument is very weak.
Discussion on Answer
Descartes addressed this issue in his Meditations (quoted at length in Steinitz’s book Logical Missile etc., p. 123):
“Thus the idea of the infinite is in me before that of the finite. That is, the idea of God is in me before the idea of myself. For how could I understand that I doubt and desire to know—in other words, that I lack something and am not wholly complete—unless there were in me the idea of a being more perfect than my own, by comparison with which I would recognize my own deficiencies?”
In his view, it is דווקא the concept of finitude that is born from the concept of infinity.
Nonsense.
You cannot make that claim, because Descartes’ argument is that we have never encountered “infinity,” so how do we know of its existence? To that Descartes argues that God implanted it within us.
To put it more simply: how can we speak about / imagine the concept of God, when imagination can only combine things we already know into some new composite thing? (Of course, I am talking about the abstract God, not an idol-like one made up of a human with greater power.) According to Descartes, the answer to that too is that God implanted it in us.