I.

Descartes Methodic Doubt a. A thing that thinks i. A thing that doubts, affirms, denies, knows a few thing, is ignorant of many things, wills, rejects, and also imagines and senses b. Senses and Imagination i. Only certain that they are with me, outside which I am not certain

II. Certain and clear distinct idea a. I am certain that I am a thinking thing but how can I be certain to others b. Before, I am certain of my ideas of the material things c. The truth is what I perceive is the idea of the thing and not the material thing itself. d. Hence, even I have a perception of the idea of the thing I cannot be certain that this idea is the material representation of thing itself. e. I can be certain about geometry and arithmetic but still I cannot be absolutely certain because there might be a God that is deceiving me III. The deceiving God a. A powerful God who, if he wishes he can cause me to be deceived. b. I am certain that I am not deceived i. He cannot deceive me that I am not existing ii. I am not certain that there is a God IV. Is there a God a. There is a need to explain: i. If there is God, whether he can be a deceiver ii. If I cannot be certain on Gods existence then I can never be certain to anythings V. Before God: the order of thought

a. Some idea are like images of things i. Man, chimera, heaven, angel and God b. Some ideas are volition or emotions c. Some ideas are judgment VI. To where I commit mistake a. If ideas are considered in themselves, they cannot be false b. It cant be false in the will or emotions i. Volition: decision to chose something ii. Emotions: you certainly feel it. c. It is only in judgment that I commit mistake i. my idea is in conformity with the outside thing the most common mistake VII.The origin of ideas a. Some are innate b. Some are derived from an external source c. Some are produced by me d. The problem: I can tell of the origin of some ideas but I cannot be certain to their true origin VIII. Object of investigation: Those that are derived from an external source a. What is the reason to believe that the ideas are similar to those objects i. It is nature ii. Will has no effect I cant resist to feel the heat iii. Hence, it transmits its own likeness IX. Taught by nature a. Light of nature i. From the fact that I doubt, I exist b. Natural impulses

i. Less perfect than the light of nature ii. There is no reason to trust that they are from outside source 1. Even if they dont depend upon the will it does not follow that they are from an external source 2. There might be other faculty a. Who knows these ideas are formed while Im sleeping 3. Idea of the sun a. From the senses b. From astronomy X. Blind belief a. All this point that I believed not by certain judgment but by blind impulse that things exist outside XI. Ideas are modes of thought a. They are the same in a sense that they are ideas in themselves b. Different as to what they represent c. Objective reality -The content of an idea i. God has a more objective reality than the three ii. formal reality exist in its own XII.The cause and the effect a. no effect can have a greater amount of reality than its cause. b. everything that comes into being must be made to be by something that has an equal or greater amount of reality. c. Formal and eminent i. Formal equal reality ii. Eminent greater reality XIII. The cause of idea a. There must be a greater cause than the idea

b. There must be a greater reality if the cause of idea c. What is in the formal is in the objective, hence, no nothing XIV. The idea a. An idea can come from another idea b. But it cannot go to infinite regress c. The first cause of idea that contain all reality d. My ideas are like images that can not contain exactly the same as in the cause XV. The outside cause a. If the objective reality of my idea is such that I do not contain formally or immanently then there I am not alone in this universe. There must be a cause of this idea who exist XVI. XVII. Idea of corporeal I can create it from me since I am a corporeal being Idea of God a. Proof Existence i. I have an idea of God ii. God is infinite and independent substance, intelligent and powerful in the highest degree, who created me along with everything else iii. This idea did not arise from me iv. God must necessarily exist. b. Idea by negation i. My idea of God is not an idea trough negation of the infinite ii. I clearly understand that there is reality of the infinite iii. The idea of the infinite is prior to the idea of the finite iv. The mere fact that I conclude that I am a doubting thing, hence, having imperfection then i understand what is perfection which makes me to say that ay I am imperfect. Hence there is the embodiment of perfection as a point of comparison.

c. Idea as material false i. God cannot be nothing for a perfect being cannot be nothing a contradiction ii. My idea of God is the most perfect, the most clear and the most distinct d. I might be greater than I take my self to be i. Perhaps the perfection I attribute to God might be attributed to me ii. They are potential to me iii. The mere potentiality of perfection is an indication that ay am imperfection iv. My knowledge 1. Can never reach a point incapable of increase 2. God is pure actuality and no other things can be added to its perfection. XVIII. Can I exist without this perfect being a. If I am the source of my existence i. I am a God ii. I will not lack anything iii. For I would have given all the perfection to my self iv. I would not have denied myself b. If I always existed and need not be cause to exist i. preservation ii. I depend on another Being c. Not God but other finite being i. There must be as much in the cause as there in the effect ii. I am a thing that thinks and I have an idea of the most perfect being which is God iii. In itself is God

iv. In another is not God v. No infinity d. The perfect idea is from different cause i. The idea of unity, simplicity, or the inseparability of all those things which are in God is one of the principal of perfections that I understand to be in him e. Parents i. They do not preserve me ii. They did not bring me into being a thing that thinks iii. They merely place certain disposition f. God exists i. I exist ii. I have an idea of the most perfect being iii. God exists XIX. How I received this idea of God a. I did not draw from senses b. I did not produce a cannot add or subtract anything from it c. It is innate in me, just as the idea of myself is innate in me d. God had endowed me with this idea when he created me XX. God is not a deceiver a. Fraud and deception depends on some defect b. God is perfect c. Hence, he is not a deceiver