What Exists: Descartes, Berkeley, And Russell

Rene Descartes, in his first meditation, tells us that everything in this world is dubious and that we cannot rely on our senses/perceptions. “All that up to the present time I have accepted as most true and certain I have learned either from the senses or through the senses; but it is sometimes proved to me that these senses are deceptive, and it is wiser no to trust entirely to any thing by which we have once been deceived.” (Descartes 108) This is

the basis for Descartes study; he must now work his way up and figure out what is certain and not dubious. In meditation two, Descartes gives us his proof of one sure thing, he exists as a doubter, a thinker, a mind. “But there is some deceiver or other, very powerful and very cunning, who ever employs his ingenuity in deceiving me. Then without doubt I exist also if he deceives me, and let him deceive me as much as he will, he can never cause me to be nothing so long as I think that I am something.” (Descartes 111) Descartes reasons that he is certain that he exists because he thinks. He has perceptions and therefore, exists. Now that Descartes has proven his own existence it is time to prove other things. In meditation three Descartes attempts to prove the existence of God. Descartes is not quick to make a decision on the existence of God because of human error that arises within our judgement. Descartes then slowly dissects the whole situation. Descartes realizes that his ideas may come from different entities, “But among these ideas, some appear to me to be innate, some adventitious, and others to be formed by myself.” (Descartes 116) He then sees that an idea of God cannot come from nothing, which leads me to Descartes causal principal, “And from this it follows, not only that something cannot proceed from nothing, but likewise that what is more perfect-that is to say, which has more reality within itself-cannot proceed from the less perfect.” (Descartes 118) There must be a creator and therefore an infinite perfect being and therefore a God. Also God cannot be a deceiver because if God were a deceiver this would be an imperfection and this is not in Gods nature. And finally Descartes attempts to prove the existence of material substances in meditation six. Descartes starts out by telling us that in all probability there is a body and material things but that he is not certain. Material substances exist because, “God is no deceiver, it is very manifest that He does not communicate to me these i

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