Combining Philosophers

Ideas for Empedocles, Ren Descartes and F.H. Bradley

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5 ideas

29. Religion / D. Religious Issues / 2. Immortality / b. Soul
I can't prove the soul is indestructible, only that it is separate from the mortal body [Descartes]
     Full Idea: I don't know how to demonstrate that God cannot annihilate the soul, but only that it is entirely distinct from the body, and consequently that it is not naturally subject to die with it, which is all that is required to establish religion.
     From: René Descartes (Letters to Mersenne [1640], 1640.02.24)
29. Religion / D. Religious Issues / 3. Problem of Evil / c. Human Error
God didn't give us good judgement even about our own lives [Gassendi on Descartes]
     Full Idea: God is not to be blamed for giving puny man a faculty of judging that is too small to cope with everything, but we may still wonder why our judgement is uncertain, confused and inadequate even for the few matters he did want us to decide upon.
     From: comment on René Descartes (Meditations [1641], §4.58) by Pierre Gassendi - Objections to 'Meditations' (Fifth) 314
Since God does not wish to deceive me, my judgement won't make errors if I use it properly [Descartes]
     Full Idea: Since God does not wish to deceive me, he assuredly has not given me a faculty of judgement with which I could never make a mistake, when I use it properly.
     From: René Descartes (Meditations [1641], §4.54)
Error arises because my faculty for judging truth is not infinite [Descartes]
     Full Idea: I make mistakes because the faculty of judging the truth, which I got from God, is not, in my case, infinite.
     From: René Descartes (Meditations [1641], §4.54)
29. Religion / D. Religious Issues / 3. Problem of Evil / d. Natural Evil
If we ask whether God's works are perfect, we must not take a narrow viewpoint, but look at the universe as a whole [Descartes]
     Full Idea: Whenever we ask whether the works of God are perfect, we should keep in view not simply some one creature in isolation from the rest, but the universe as a whole.
     From: René Descartes (Meditations [1641], §4.55)