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D

ESCARTES

' F

OURTH

M

EDITATION

: T

HEODICY AND

T

HE

E

THICS OF

B

ELIEF

| G

REG

S

CHNEIDER

Gregory Schneider graduated with a degree in philosophy in the spring of 2001.  He wrote this essay as

an independent study project under my direction in the fall of 2000.  The essay was read at the Rocky

Mountain National Conference held for philosophy students at the University of Colorado in April of

2001.  It was one of only six undergraduate papers accepted from across the country (another was the

paper by Matt Meyer included in this volume of PRISM).  In this essay, Schneider argues that the fourth

Meditation of Descartes' Meditations on First Philosophy is crucial to understanding Descartes' overall

project to defend the claims of reason.  He maintains that there is a critical flaw in Descartes' attempt

to defend the existence of God, qua Perfect Being, in the wake of the existence of human error (caused

by the imbalance between an infinite will to believe with the presence of an all too finite ability to

understand).  This flaw jeopardizes Descartes' entire project of defending rationalism.

James Brummer

Professor of Philosophy

Descartes' Fourth Meditation: Theodicy and The Ethics of Belief     Greg Schneider

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