Descartes vs. Spinoza
Term Paper, Philosophy 1107 Aaron Davis
Evaluation & Comparison Between Descartes and Spinoza
About The Paper: What I will do in this following paper is to discuss two very interesting philosophers, Rene
Descartes and Benedictus de Spinoza. I will discuss each philosopher’s perspectives and insights
on their most recognized theories and thoughts. I will then evaluate them and then give my opinion
on the given topic. By doing this, I will contrast the similarities and differences between the two
genius minds. By the end of the paper I will have discarded some ideas and opinions from each of
the two and will have my own judgment that consists of thoughts from Spinoza, Descartes and my
self put together.
Themes On Descartes:
Existence of God-
Descartes’ View -
One of the most famous and debatable theories Descartes had was his proof of the
existence of God. He had for steps on the ladder to prove this. 1) Everything including our ideas
has a cause. 2) We have an idea of God. 3) Nothing less than God is adequate to be the cause of
our idea of God. An lastly 4) Therefore God exists.
My View -
Considering the fact that Descartes was a rationalist and a very religious man, you can see
why he would desperately try to make sense of everything, including God. I believe his proof that
he has laid out for us that God exists is false. What Descartes is trying to tell us is that our idea of
God comes directly from God himself and that we cannot create something in our minds that we
have not already witnessed by our senses. But I believe we can implant the idea of God in our
minds without God planting it for us. Since man has been on this planet, we have been evolving. I
believe our idea of God is a collection of thoughts and ideas that has evolved. Ideas such as
security, peace, direction, order, separating good and evil, questions to our existence, comfort,
space, answers
Evaluation & Comparison Between Descartes and Spinoza
About The Paper: What I will do in this following paper is to discuss two very interesting philosophers, Rene
Descartes and Benedictus de Spinoza. I will discuss each philosopher’s perspectives and insights
on their most recognized theories and thoughts. I will then evaluate them and then give my opinion
on the given topic. By doing this, I will contrast the similarities and differences between the two
genius minds. By the end of the paper I will have discarded some ideas and opinions from each of
the two and will have my own judgment that consists of thoughts from Spinoza, Descartes and my
self put together.
Themes On Descartes:
Existence of God-
Descartes’ View -
One of the most famous and debatable theories Descartes had was his proof of the
existence of God. He had for steps on the ladder to prove this. 1) Everything including our ideas
has a cause. 2) We have an idea of God. 3) Nothing less than God is adequate to be the cause of
our idea of God. An lastly 4) Therefore God exists.
My View -
Considering the fact that Descartes was a rationalist and a very religious man, you can see
why he would desperately try to make sense of everything, including God. I believe his proof that
he has laid out for us that God exists is false. What Descartes is trying to tell us is that our idea of
God comes directly from God himself and that we cannot create something in our minds that we
have not already witnessed by our senses. But I believe we can implant the idea of God in our
minds without God planting it for us. Since man has been on this planet, we have been evolving. I
believe our idea of God is a collection of thoughts and ideas that has evolved. Ideas such as
security, peace, direction, order, separating good and evil, questions to our existence, comfort,
space, answers