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The trademark argument [1] is an a priori argument for the existence of God developed by the French philosopher and mathematician René Descartes. The name derives from the fact that the idea of God existing in each person "is the trademark, hallmark or stamp of their divine creator".
Descartes published several variations of his argument, each of which center on the idea that God's existence is immediately inferable from a "clear and distinct" idea of a supremely perfect being. In the early 18th century, Gottfried Leibniz augmented Descartes' ideas in an attempt to prove that a "supremely perfect" being is a coherent concept.
Descartes' proofs of God's existence presuppose the reliability of clear and distinct perceptions. Many commentators, both at the time that Descartes wrote and since, have argued that this involves a circular argument , as he relies upon the principle of clarity and distinctness to argue for the existence of God , and then claims that God is ...
Other arguments for the existence of God have been proposed by St. Anselm, who formulated the first ontological argument; Thomas Aquinas, who presented his own version of the cosmological argument (the first way); René Descartes, who said that the existence of a benevolent God is logically necessary for the evidence of the senses to be meaningful.
In his meditations, Descartes uses the CAP to support his trademark argument for the existence of God. [2]: 430 Descartes' assertions were disputed by Thomas Hobbes in his "Third Set of Objections" published in 1641. [3]: 379 René Descartes was not the founder of this philosophical claim.
A cosmological argument can also sometimes be referred to as an argument from universal causation, an argument from first cause, the causal argument or the prime mover argument. The concept of causation is a principal underpinning idea in all cosmological arguments, particularly in affirming the necessity for a First Cause .
Descartes, however, was very much aware that experimentation was necessary to verify and validate theories. [96] Descartes invokes his causal adequacy principle [126] to support his trademark argument for the existence of God, quoting Lucretius in defence: "Ex nihilo nihil fit", meaning "Nothing comes from nothing" . [127]
Meditations on First Philosophy, in which the existence of God and the immortality of the soul are demonstrated (Latin: Meditationes de Prima Philosophia, in qua Dei existentia et animæ immortalitas demonstratur), often called simply the Meditations, [1] is a philosophical treatise by René Descartes first published in Latin in 1641.