Descartes Free Will

In contemplation of the first philosophy, Descartes tried to explain the cause of human error. Mr. Descartes said that an error "Because intention is advanced over intellect" occurred (Cartesle, p. 39). That is because our intelligence is limited; it is limited to the perception of something. Our will, the ability to choose is not limited, it has unlimited capacity. Therefore, we sometimes try to do something we can not fully understand. As I will briefly explain, if you agree with all his terms, Descartes' discussion is very reasonable (intelligence is limited, so the will is infinite).

An important part of the description of Descartes' free will is to explain the cause of human error. After the first three meditation, Descartes concluded that "God can not deceive" (4th meditation, 37). When discussing the ability to judge, Descartes pointed out, "Like all other things, of course, it is obtained from God" (ibid). If your ability to accept the judgment comes from God and God is a perfect non-deception, you seem to conclude that the power of trial never goes bad. After all, how is the teacher from God incomplete? It is at this point that Descartes began to focus on explaining the causes of human mistakes. Because judgment is from God, human beings often make mistakes.

Descartes' judgment theory, he was able to explain the evil of the error using the defense of free will. For Descartes, judgment is the result of the interaction between two different departments: Will and understanding. To understand is to present an assertion that we approve, then whether the intention applies to the intention: the intention depends only on the ability of something to do or not of us. When intelligence places something in affirmation or rejection or pursuit or avoidance, our tendency does not make us feel that we are determined by any external forces. (Descartes 1984: 40)