What is the argument for the existence of God from Meditation Three

PHIL 203: Philosophy in the Modern Age

Mount Saint Mary’s University

Dr. Derek McAllister

Argument Evaluation Essay

The assignment must be no more than 4 pages in length, double-spaced.  References to the text must be made in accordance with MLA style. Please follow the guidelines for good writing and the proper documentation of sources.

Please include your name, the course name, number, and section letter, instructor’s name, and date on the first page. Be sure to give your essay a thoughtful title and to number your pages.  Please include a works cited page. Spelling and grammar are an important part of your work and will be considered in evaluating the assignment.  Please take some care and pride in what you have done and take the time to proofread what you have written. Organization, of course, is very important as well, so be sure to structure your consideration thoughtfully.  Make your points and support these with reference to or examples from the text.  Textual references and supporting evidence are essential for the success of your paper. Papers without multiple explicit references will not receive a passing grade. See the grading rubric that is on Canvas.

The procedure for the essay is to explain and evaluate one of the following arguments from Descartes’s Meditations. This means setting up the context of the argument, clarifying the steps of the argument, explaining each step, and then making a judgment about whether the argument is a good and convincing one. Be sure to consider possible objections to the argument.

Choose one of the following arguments.

1. The argument of radical doubt (including both the dream hypothesis and evil genius hypothesis) from Meditation One.

2. The argument for our existence (the cogito argument) from Meditation Two.

3. The argument that the mind is more certainly known than the body (the wax argument) from Meditation Two.

4. The first argument for the existence of God (from the idea of perfection) from Meditation Three.

5. The second argument for the existence of God (from my existence) from Meditation Three.

6. The argument for the source of my error from Meditation Four.