Descartes explains the prospect of error. Descartes thinks that how can he ever erred if he was created by a Supreme Being which whom he is referring to God, because God could never make any mistakes. Descartes states that “for error is not a pure negation but rather a privation or a lack of some knowledge that somehow ought to be in. Descartes then questions himself and almost questioning God’s creation saying “God’s always wills what is best. Is it then better that I should be in error rather than not? Mediations,37). Descartes seems a little confused and seems like he is questioning God’s creation of the human mind but then he comes up with two causes of why these errors might occur (1) knowing and (2) choosing.
Error only occurs only of the will and the intellect. According to Descartes no error is found in the intellect. If you know something and can perform what you know then there shouldn’t be any error. Descartes says “through the intellect alone I merely perceive ideas…I can render a judgment” (Meditations 38). The next cause is the choosing which he refers to as your will, in its judgments, going beyond what the intellect clearly and distinctly perceives to be the case. Willing is being able to do or not do the same thing. So God gives him the intellect which there can possibly be no errors but on his own free will their can be errors? Descartes is basically saying only on knowing you can make a judgment but on will there are going to be errors because this process of free will was came upon on his own and not from God.
Intellect is given by God so it cannot produce any kind of error, its impossible, according to Descartes stating, he makes it ultimately clear when he states “I got my power of understanding from God, whatever I understand I doubtless understand rightly, and it is impossible for me to be deceived in this “ (Meditations,39). So my concern to Descartes theory on error is if the evidence is in your sight that your intellect has deceived you, what you actually thought was true has now became not true what do you believe? Do you still believe that your intellect is by far true just because the Supreme Being has created you and they are not in right to make mistakes?
I think you may be wrong on your interpretation of Descartes that the will alone is the sole reason for error, coming, as you say, from him and not God. Contrarily, Descartes states, “…the power of willing, which I got from God, is not, taken by itself, the cause of my errors” (p. 84:58-59). He goes on to state in the same passage that the true cause of error is the will extending further than the intellect. The will cannot be contained as the intellect and it allows one to go into things that the intellect does not yet understand.
ReplyDeleteI think Brent makes a good point, because as Descartes say there are certain ideas that exist outside of him, such as the sun. That idea itself doesn't depend on his will or himself but sometimes goes against it. He either approaches those ideas by his senses or by intellect and the main error is to judge those external ideas as similar to the ones that are within. So his judgment which is based upon intellect can be in error too.
ReplyDeleteI’m not sure how confused Descartes is. After briefly posing the question on the cause of his own errors, he very quickly comes to the conclusion that because God is without fault and man was created by God, that “...this is sufficient for me also to know that he can make innumerable things whose causes escape me.” (Meditations 37). He also concludes that the error which he experiences may seem imperfect by itself, but not in the grand scheme of things. To think that man could surmise the reason why God has made error in him would be “rash” (Meditations 37).
ReplyDeleteI agree with Brent's point. To extend, Descartes thinks that the only reason that we make errors is because unlike our intellect, which can only focus on one thing at a time, our will can focus on more than one thing at a time. In my understanding, what he means is that the cause for error comes from making decisions based on what want or feel, instead of basing them on reason and thinking through our decisions.
ReplyDeleteDescartes thinks that the human intellect is reliable because it was created by God. The intellect is everything it proceeds the will. The intellect has limitations it does not understand things as well.The will on the other hand does not have as much limitations,error consists in the will though there is more good rather than evil will prevail in the will.The will should not be restricted otherwise only " clear and distinct" will exist and there would be no error.
ReplyDeletePrevious posters have made some excellent points concerning the extension of will and the finite limitations of intellect. I believe this also negates your final concern. It is important to note that Descartes states you cannot make a mistake if the faculty of judgement given by God is used properly. If you were to restrain from passing judgement on something due to the lack of clear and distinct understanding, then you would be acting properly and without error.
ReplyDelete"what he means is that the cause for error comes from making decisions based on what want or feel, instead of basing them on reason and thinking through our decisions." - Sol Feuerwerker
ReplyDeleteI also think this is what he meant. Our senses are deceitful, and if we used reason, then we can limit our errors. Given that people like to daydream on the job of becoming a millionaire and even knowing the chance of winning mega millions is 1/176mil, if everyone used reason, no one would have bought it.(despite how we like to dream about getting rich and don't have to work)