Abstract The Discourse on the Method of Rightly Conducting the Reason and Seeking for Truth in the Sciences is an autobiography published by Rene Descartes’ in 1637. In this writing Descartes expresses his disappointment with traditional philosophy and with the limitations of theology. Therefore he proposes a method of thought but based on intuitive truths about what is real and basic knowledge of truths. He searched for solutions using principles that he already knew and set out to establish knowledge or truths. One revelation he outlined in his writing Discourse on the Method Part IV. In this essay we will discuss the surprise ending in Part IV of the writing as Descartes tries to prove his own existence but ends up proving the existence of God.
In part IV, Descartes discuss the results of his meditation when he reached what he felt was true knowledge and findings of the truth of his own thoughts. In the beginning Descartes tries to find a solution for his thoughts and his existence, he even tried to pretend that his thoughts were illusions of his dreams and considers everything false that he can possibly doubt. He suggests that our sense, experience, imagination and will are part of the mind alone. The logic he stated is as follows: “(1) I think, and I possess and idea of God; (2) The idea of God is the idea of an actually infinite perfect being; (3) Such an idea could only originate in an actually infinite perfect being; and (4) Therefore, there is an infinitely perfect being which we call God (Sayre, 2013, p. 709).
The surprise ending comes when Descartes did not intend to prove the existence of God as he began his search for what is truth or not. I realized the direction of the reading was changed when Descartes realized that his soul made him who he was. The idea of God was an innate idea and God was and is eternal, omniscient and omnipotent, whereas he has all the qualities that we can only imagine but cannot…