In Meditations 3, Descartes gives two arguments for the existence of God. The first argument begins from the claim that we have an idea of God as a supremely perfect being (it runs from p. 48-the end of the first column on p. 52) Present and evaluate Descartes’ first cosmological argument for the existence of God. Do you think Descartes successfully shows that God exists?
In the first third of your paper, you should briefly outline Descartes’ first cosmological argument and contextualize it. You will want to answer the following questions: (1) Why does Descartes want to show that God exists (where does it fit within the broader project of the Meditations)? (2) How does Descartes argue for God’s existence in the first cosmological argument? You should provide textual evidence for your answers to these questions. Sometimes this may require discussing brief quotes that support your interpretation of Descartes; at other times, references to specific pages and paragraphs that contain the evidence you are relying upon may suffice.
In the final two-thirds of the paper, you should evaluate Descartes’ argument. If you think the argument is not successful, you will want to identify the premises of the argument with which you disagree and explain why we should reject them. If you think the argument is successful, you will want to discuss at least one major objection to the argument and explain how Descartes could successfully respond to that objection.