Throughout Descartes Meditations he examines many things. I have chosen to discuss Descartes argument for the esistence of God which appears in Meditation Three: Concerning God, That he Exists. Descartes biulds his entire argument upon his proof in the previous meditation that in order for him to think, he must exist. .
From this single observation, Descartes notices that the idea of his existence is very clear and distinct in his mind. Based uponthis clarity and the fact that he has just determined his own existence, he dedces a rule: the thing that he sees as very clar and very distinct are all true. Descartes starts his proof by dividing "thought" into four categories; ideas, volitions, emotions, and judgements. He then breaks down these categories to disvocer which trypes of thoughts can yeild error. The first thing to realize is that there is no error in an idea. Error can occur only in the judgement of whether the idea is true or false. For example, I might have an idea of what it would be like to prick my finger, but that idea has no rightness or wrongness until I makea judemnnt as to whther I believe or disbelieve the idea. In other words having an idea is on thing, but believeing it is something different. Concerning emotions and volitions, these forms of thought do not give way to any error either since we can desire or choose anything and not find any error in the fact that we desire it or choose it.