Descartes’ Proof of God: Ordo Cognoscendi and the Cogito
Descartes justified his actions by the distinction between the ordo essendi (establishing what are the first things in reality) and ordo cognoscendi (establishing what things are the basis of our subjective knowledge).
However, my knowledge of God is still mediated by the knowledge I have of myself.
If I can only get to know the Creator through my own self, Descartes is forced to bring God from without, as when he speculated that God fooled him just before the hypothesis of the evil genius. The philosopher can only be justified on the grounds that it is common memories or beliefs.
From a strictly Cartesian view, the presence of the idea of God in man’s mind seems to operate as a condition for the existence of God. And although the infinite substance provides a security post, this does not preclude the Cartesian thinking subject from never being so sure of the existence of a supreme being like his own. If we stubbornly maintain the evil genius hypothesis beyond reasonable doubt, categorically denying the validity of the argument of the trace, all that remains standing on the ruins of God would be the ego cogito.
First, Descartes said that he has already demonstrated the existence of God and shows a certain confidence about it. But soon after, he embarks on a new demonstration. It was not all.
Descartes used an argument with a long philosophical history. It’s called the ontological argument. Descartes is trying to prove God’s existence solely from the concept of God. Access to the supreme being will no longer be mediated by self-consciousness of the thinking self, nor depend on any divine imprint. Everything revolves around the internal constituents of the idea.
I know that the essence of God contains all perfections possible, since it is the most perfect. Suppose God does not exist. Then, he lacks the perfection of existence. But if he lacked something (of existence) he would not be God, for I only define it as being absolutely perfect. So if I stand by that definition, God exists. Descartes’ ontological argument gives the consideration of proof of the existence of God.
The ontological argument becomes, next to the cogito, key evidence in the measure of all truisms. The philosopher gives to God the role of a cornerstone of your system and hence it becomes the final arbiter of truth.
If you can again believe in the truth of mathematical theorems when it is presented clearly and distinctly, if you no longer have reason to believe that the apparent evidence of some of their deductions are the result of the tricks of the evil genius, the cause of all is the guarantee provided by the existence of God.
All truths, without exception, are true insofar as it is undoubtedly true that God exists.
The truth is possible only if God exists. The cogito had been lurking all the time and has re-emerged in the last minute, just as the philosopher reformulated the concept of evidence based on his knowledge of being absolutely perfect. He has established close bonds with his thinking self, not even to consider objectively the idea of God seems to have managed to distance himself.