{"id":292,"date":"2014-01-27T20:20:56","date_gmt":"2014-01-27T20:20:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/planetmacneil.org\/blog\/?p=292"},"modified":"2020-12-27T20:22:12","modified_gmt":"2020-12-27T20:22:12","slug":"descartes-showed-there-was-no-need-for-god-in-philosophy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/planetmacneil.org\/blog\/descartes-showed-there-was-no-need-for-god-in-philosophy\/","title":{"rendered":"Descartes showed there was no need for God in philosophy"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>With reference to Descartes&#8217; key philosophical ideas and with particular reference to Descartes&#8217; Discourse on the Method and related metaphysical works, discuss and critically assess this statement<\/h2>\n<p>Descartes marked a pivotal moment in Western philosophy with respect to the role of reason in both philosophy and theology.  The controversy surrounding Descartes\u2019 application of his \u201cfirst principle of philosophy\u201d, the <em>cognito<\/em> (<em>\u201cI am thinking, therefore I am\u201d<\/em>), resulted in his work being put on the Catholic Index of the Inquisition shortly after his death.  The controversy was also found within Protestant Holland where Descartes had lived for a large portion of his working life.  At the height of disputations in the 1640s, his philosophy was described as <em>\u201cblasphemous and atheistic\u201d<\/em> by Leiden professor of theology Jacob Trigland.  This essay examines whether it really was Descartes\u2019 intention to facilitate the <em>\u201cremoval of God from philosophy\u201d<\/em> by <em>\u201c[setting] up reason, everyone\u2019s own rational faculty, as the sole authority and criterion of truth\u201d<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>You can read a PDF of the essay <a href=\"https:\/\/planetmacneil.org\/Documents\/Content\/Descartes-Dismissing-God.pdf\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>With reference to Descartes&#8217; key philosophical ideas and with particular reference to Descartes&#8217; Discourse on the Method and related metaphysical works, discuss and critically assess this statement Descartes marked a pivotal moment in Western philosophy with respect to the role of reason in both philosophy and theology. The controversy surrounding Descartes\u2019 application of his \u201cfirst [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":293,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,13,33],"tags":[137,139,138],"class_list":["post-292","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-philosophy","category-philosophy-of-religion","category-theology","tag-descartes","tag-method-of-doubt","tag-scholasticism"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\r\n<title>Descartes showed there was no need for God in philosophy - PlanetM Blog<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Descartes and God in Philosophy - was it Descartes\u2019 intention to facilitate the removal of God from philosophy?\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\r\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/planetmacneil.org\/blog\/descartes-showed-there-was-no-need-for-god-in-philosophy\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Descartes showed there was no need for God in philosophy - 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I have an MSc in Electronic Engineering and an MA in Studies in Philosophy and Religion. I am a Microsoft Certified Professional with an MCSD. I have a teaching qualification in Physics and like most things science. Otherwise I like classic VWs, watching Rodney Howard-Browne, playing guitar and making computer music.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/planetmacneil.org\/blog\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/planetmacneil.org\/blog\/author\/mmacneill123\/\"}]}<\/script>\r\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Descartes showed there was no need for God in philosophy - PlanetM Blog","description":"Descartes and God in Philosophy - was it Descartes\u2019 intention to facilitate the removal of God from philosophy?","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/planetmacneil.org\/blog\/descartes-showed-there-was-no-need-for-god-in-philosophy\/","og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"Descartes showed there was no need for God in philosophy - PlanetM Blog","og_description":"Descartes and God in Philosophy - was it Descartes\u2019 intention to facilitate the removal of God from philosophy?","og_url":"https:\/\/planetmacneil.org\/blog\/descartes-showed-there-was-no-need-for-god-in-philosophy\/","og_site_name":"Planet M Blog","article_published_time":"2014-01-27T20:20:56+00:00","article_modified_time":"2020-12-27T20:22:12+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1400,"height":600,"url":"https:\/\/planetmacneil.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/big-thinker-rene-descartes.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Michael Macneil","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Michael Macneil","Estimated reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/planetmacneil.org\/blog\/descartes-showed-there-was-no-need-for-god-in-philosophy\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/planetmacneil.org\/blog\/descartes-showed-there-was-no-need-for-god-in-philosophy\/"},"author":{"name":"Michael Macneil","@id":"https:\/\/planetmacneil.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/78d80b09bb7f5dca3e2779fb6a2c2d33"},"headline":"Descartes showed there was no need for God in philosophy","datePublished":"2014-01-27T20:20:56+00:00","dateModified":"2020-12-27T20:22:12+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/planetmacneil.org\/blog\/descartes-showed-there-was-no-need-for-god-in-philosophy\/"},"wordCount":179,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/planetmacneil.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/78d80b09bb7f5dca3e2779fb6a2c2d33"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/planetmacneil.org\/blog\/descartes-showed-there-was-no-need-for-god-in-philosophy\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/planetmacneil.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/big-thinker-rene-descartes.jpg","keywords":["Descartes","Method of Doubt","Scholasticism"],"articleSection":["Philosophy","Philosophy of Religion","Theology"],"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/planetmacneil.org\/blog\/descartes-showed-there-was-no-need-for-god-in-philosophy\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/planetmacneil.org\/blog\/descartes-showed-there-was-no-need-for-god-in-philosophy\/","url":"https:\/\/planetmacneil.org\/blog\/descartes-showed-there-was-no-need-for-god-in-philosophy\/","name":"Descartes showed there was no need for God in philosophy - 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