Descartes's Proof Of God's Existence: The Resolution Of The Problem

Determining the relationship between mental and bodily states represents what philosophers have known as the mind-body problem. Its resolution has been one of the main knots of philosophy, which, even today has not been unleashed. This problem appeared in ancient times when the mind was known as the 'soul.' It became popular in the Modern Age, thanks to Rene Descartes. The problem arises from the discussion that a man has a dual nature, that is, that one part of his nature is spiritual and the other, material.

Rene Descartes is considered the father of modern philosophy. In his meditations, he tried to explain how consciousness, spirit, thoughts, and ideas, among others, can be linked to the material world, as science describes it. In his first meditation, Descartes doubts all our knowledge. From the knowledge that comes to us through the senses, which can be manipulated by an evil genius, to the mathematical knowledge. However, in the second meditation, it reaches a certainty: “Cogito ergo sums” (I think therefore I am).

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In this meditation, Descartes realizes that there is something that is the bearer of doubt: the 'I.' In the third meditation, Descartes proves the existence of God and identifies three types of ideas: innate, adventitious, and fictitious. The first one, are all those ideas we acquire before an experience, that is, we have them within us; the second, are all those ideas that we acquire from an experience, and the last ones, are hybrid concepts between innate and adventitious ideas. In his fourth meditation, Descartes argues that the human being is an imperfect being, who makes mistakes despite having a capacity for understanding that can distinguish the true from the false.

Descartes argues that God gave us a reason and will, so we can make our own decisions. However, on many occasions, we use our will in the wrong way. In his fifth meditation, Descartes's proof of God's existence, Descartes tries to prove in a better way the existence of God through the Ontological argument of Saint Anselm. It concludes that the idea of ​​a perfect being implies the existence of that being. Finally, in his sixth meditation, Descartes concludes that scientific knowledge, which is based on our experience, is both possible and reliable.

In his meditations, Descartes postulates the dualistic argument in response to the two substances. The central thesis is that a person consists of two substances, a thinking substance, and a physical substance, with opposite attributes and such that one can exist without the other. Descartes fails to explain the interaction between body and soul, and how it is possible to individualize them in a way to establish limits and define how they exist when there is no control. This makes that many do not agree with Descartes's theory, so alternative theories arise. One of them is materialism, which holds that the mind and body are not different since the mind is a physical-material substance. David Chalmers creates the experiment of philosophical zombies as an objection to materialism. This experiment consisted of imagining a world that is physically identical to ours, but instead of being populated by humans, it is populated by zombies. These zombies could be physically equal to humans, but they have no conscious and subjective experiences, so they do not feel, nor can they develop a consciousness of 'being.' With this, Chalmers questions explanations about the functioning and complexity of consciousness. But this theory leaves out the 'qualia' (internal feeling of experience). And that is why John Searle believes that nobody has managed to offer a coherent argument about the relationship between the mental and the physical. Searle tries to offer an alternative theory by stating that mental states and processes are caused by brain operations, which are performed on the structure of the brain and the rest of the central nervous system. For him, 'If I consciously seem to be conscious, then I’m conscious.'

It can be said that the problem of the relationship between body and mind has not been resolved. Different explanations have been presented, each of them showing an existing relationship from a dualistic, materialist, and neutral monistic point of view. Descartes uses dualism in Descartes's proof of God's existence. He argued that in each person the body and mind are united and each of them constantly influences the other. On the other hand, Chalmers using central monism asserts that subjectivity and objectivity are aspects of the same essence. And finally, John Searle manages to distinguish between reality and illusion and affirms that states of consciousness are caused by the processes of the mind.

From my point of view, the resolution of the problem has failed for two reasons: the first arises when trying to see the body and the mind as two independent elements when the truth is that they are inseparable, and act together. Each determines the other and vice versa. The body determines the states of the mind, and the mind determines the states of the body, consciously or unconsciously; the second, continue trying, from reason, to explain elements of faith. The wrong idea of ​​explaining everything as a binary system between the visible and the invisible. Philosophers, for whom the mind was equivalent to the soul, have even left an element out of the equation that increases the complexity of the problem: the spirit. In Thessalonians 5:23 God describes being composed of three elements, and not just two when he says: “May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ”. Descartes sought to give certainty but achieved the opposite.