Descartes Quest For The Existence Of God
Descartes has now been reduced to total skepticism. The possibility of an evil genius existing instead of God makes him doubt everything. He has yet to find anything which meets his criteria for knowledge and is now certain only that nothing seems certain. But he has hope that if could find just one undeniable truth to cling to, he might use it as a starting place to discover more so he starts looking for one. He had assumed that God or an evil genius was the cause of his false experiences. So he asks whether then God or the evil genius must exist in order to cause the illusions. But he concludes that it might be he himself who somehow tricks himself.
It’s this self-doubt and questioning that leads Descartes up to a great discovery.
It’s this self-doubt and questioning that leads Descartes up to a great discovery.