Can One Perceive Or Confirm The Existence Of An Idea Or Object That Is External To Him Mainly - God?

Can One Perceive Or Confirm The Existence Of An Idea Or Object That Is External

To Him Mainly - God?


      "I think therefore I am." Man wills, refuses, perceives, understands,

and denies many principles.  As explained by Rene' Descartes, man is a thinking

thing, a conscious being who truthfully exists because he is certain that it is

so. All that man perceives is internally present and not external to him or his

mind.  The focal point of the third meditation that must be dealt with is: Can

one perceive or confirm the existence of an idea or object that is external to

him mainly - God?

     There are three ways, Descartes explains, that one may come to the

conclusion of an objects existence.  The first is through nature.  The second is

through feeling an object independent of one's will, for example; heat and cold.

The third, and most elaborated upon is the point of cause and effect, or more

simply, the objective reality of an idea. We will primarily deal  with the third

reason of cause and effect.

     Descartes brings some examples to demonstrate his cause and effect

theory.  More importantly, is the logic that lies behind the actual theory. The

rationale that an object will have an effect is only if it stems from a

legitimate cause.  A stone, for example, cannot be perceived accurately if there

isn't an initial idea   preceding with equal or superior properties in one's

intellect.  The mind generates ideas and develops reality through previous

schema or beliefs as Descartes states:


          "And although an idea may give rise to another idea, this

          regress cannot, nevertheless, be infinite;we must in the

          end reach a first idea, the cause of which is, as it were,

          the archetype in which all the reality  that is found

          objectively in these ideas is contained formally."


     Additionally, properties such as color, sound, heat, and cold are too

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