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Descartes's sceptical theism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2012

THADDEUS S. ROBINSON
THADDEUS S. ROBINSON*
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, Muhlenberg College, 2400 Chew Street, Allentown, PA 18104, USA e-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

In the first part of the article I show how Descartes employs the sceptical theist strategy as part of his response to the problem of evil in Meditation Four. However, Descartes's use of this strategy seems to raise a serious challenge to his whole project: if Descartes is ignorant of God's purposes, then how can he be sure that God doesn't have some morally sufficient reason for creating him with unreliable clear and distinct perceptions? Drawing on related objections from Mersenne and Hobbes, I show in the second half of the article how Descartes can sidestep this objection.

Type
Articles
Information
Religious Studies , Volume 49 , Issue 4 , December 2013 , pp. 515 - 527
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012 

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