A Critical Examination of Rene Descartes’ Trademark Argument

In the six meditations written by Rene Descartes there are numerous principals and theories proposed, among them is the Trademark argument for the existence of God, which states that we all have an innate idea of an infinitely perfect God and the cause of the idea could only be a perfect God. Descartes states that there are degrees to reality and what is less real may not be caused by something, which is given more reality, (that the cause must pre-contain the reality of it’s effect). Descartes dubs this the pre-containment principle. He then goes on to say that all things must have a cause and that all causes may affect another thing, (deemed the principle of universal causation). So using all this Descartes states that he has an idea of God, and the only possible cause for this idea is God himself, because only God contains enough formal reality to cause the idea with that much objective reality.

First off how do we know that the idea of god is in fact innate, and what of the fact that there are many different versions of that same idea? If you were to ask a person who had never had contact with another human being before exactly who or what God is, I beli

There are yet more pitfalls to Descartes’ argument through his somewhat fuzzy logic. It is uncertain exactly what Descartes means when he says that there are degrees to reality, what does it mean to say that one thing is more real than another. Also it is still unproven that all things must have a cause. Even if we concede that point, it is not verified that things that do require a cause must be caused by something of greater reality, in other words what certainty does Descartes have that the principle of non-inferiority causes is true.

1. I am certain that God exists only because I am certain of whatever I clearly and distinctly perceive.

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