The Existence of Material ThingsDescartes’ proof of the existence of a material world boils down to the assertion that God is too good a fellow to deceive us, a silly theological issue and not a philosophical argument. In the course of proving this he draws on the resources of his faculty theory to show how we can make mistakes even if God is so good. Descartes’ faculty theory would be more fruitfully discussed in the context of the foundations of science and competing theories of the operation of the mind.
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