How Does Descartes Explain Existence of Error?

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How does Descartes explain the existence of error? Is his account a good one?

All people are capable of error and that makes them imperfect. However, if

God, an all perfect being, created a human, who is a subject to many errors, then either God

is not perfect, or the error doesn’t come from God. Descartes, in his book, “Meditations”,

states that the error is a defect coming from human’s poor faculty of judgment. Ultimately,

Descartes was right, and being mistaken is not a part of our nature. Firstly, I will follow

Descartes’ arguments of human, an intermediate being with will going beyond his limited

intellect, who needs to learn how to refrain from judging things that are perceived unclearly.

Then, I will present a contradicting idea that could undermine Descartes views in order to

show that the case of error as defect is more plausible.

Descartes begins the chapter with a possible hint on the nature of error. He presents

the idea of human as something between God and nothingness by writing, “I have not only a

real and positive idea of God or of a supremely perfect being but I also have, if I may so

describe it, a certain negative idea of nothingness”

(Descartes, 2003:45). According to

Descartes, this idea of us possessing something from nothingness proves that we lack

perfection; hence, we’re not like God and that’s the reason why we are able to err. To avoid

possible objections, Descartes also tries to assure the reader that God is omnipotent and it

was his own decision to make human imperfect. Specifically, he tries to assure the reader by

writing,

“God could have created me so that I am not mistaken, nor is there any doubt either

that he always wills what it best” (Descartes, 2003:45). Descartes tries to prove that humans

lack not only God’s perfection, but also knowledge. This is one of the main components that

Descartes uses in this book to help him prove that our errors were not caused by God. He is

right that humans don’t understand a lot of things, and that there is an existing idea in us

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about God and something opposite of him. So, considering Descartes reasoning, his

argument is successful because it could possibly be true that people are somewhere in the

middle between something very perfect and very far from perfection. However, people are

unable to know that.

The book’s author continues to investigate further into possibility of error. Now,

Descartes argues that the inconsistency between already presented lack of knowledge and

infinite will is responsible for the mistakes we make. He enforces this by writing, “they

result from this alone: since the will extends further than the understanding, I do not restrain

it within the limits of the understanding but apply it even to things that I do not understand”

(Descartes, 2003:48). Descartes says that our will is unlimited. He also states that our lack

of intellect is just a merely finite thing and is not responsible for our errors, as it

“can

contain no error in the strict sense when it is considered precisely from this point of view”

(Descartes, 2003:46). The error happens, essentially, when we try to use our will and jump

into conclusions without making sure that we have enough information to be right

(Descartes, 2003:48). Free will is definitely a part of human existence: we all have certain

wishes or ideas that extend further than our possibilities to make them real. Descartes makes

this argument stronger with support of introduction into nature of error. Nevertheless, we do

not know whether we are between God and nothingness because of limited intellect. Still,

we have the idea and the ability of choosing to believe that it’s true. If we do, then it’s our

will’s choice. This argument is strong, because Descartes successfully shows that this

situation is unclear, but we are still able to make conclusions based on our will. It shows that

we have unequal quantities of will and intellect that could possibly lead us to error.

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The last part considered in this chapter of the book is on how to avoid the error.

Descartes suggests that there is a chance “as long as I refrain from making a judgement it is

clear that I act correctly and that I am not mistaken”

(Descartes, 2003:49). According to

him, only when we abstain from decision on things we do not understand, we do not make a

mistake. Descartes also addresses the issue when error is avoided by a lucky guess by

writing, “If I opt for the side that is false, I am evidently mistaken; if, however, I choose the

opposite, I land on the truth by chance but I do not thereby avoid fault”

(Descartes,

2003:49). This means that in order to correctly use our free choice, our will and knowledge