The essay at hand will be discussing Meditation III by Descartes by paying particular attention to Descartes’ ideas of God, substances and modes; objective reality and formal reality of a thing; the meaning of natural light and the use of the concept ‘cause’ in a metaphysical sense.

In Meditations III, Descartes aims to prove God’s existence and that He is not a deceptive being. Thus ensuring us that we are not deceived at all when we perceive things clearly from the spiritual realm. Descartes differentiates between the varying ideas of reality within themselves contained different grades of reality namely God, substances and modes. Descartes idea of God forms his objective reality whilst the idea of God forms Himself as the Deity’s existence is its own formal reality.

As meditations III is the argument for the existence of God, Descartes maintains that this stems from the fact that he has an idea of God. Descartes suggests that the idea m stems from God himself as both the cause and effect of this idea. The idea God implies the formal reality and also its own infinite God. Reason being, God reveals himself to Descartes in an infinite reality. Of these Descartes is certain and clear that distinct idea, representations, images are sure to exist. These ideas emanate from God as cause, as both the cause and affect of his existence. However, there must be as much reality in a cause as there is in its effect. This would apply to both formal reality and objective reality.

Regards to substances, Descartes differentiates between material and immaterial substances. Human beings, animals and trees are material substances. Whereas, mythological creatures, supernatural beings and angels are immaterial substances. Substances are both finite and infinite depending on their mode of existence. If thei of r mode of existence is of themselves or they are the manifestation of