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?
