Six metaphysical meditations · René Descartes
OBJECT. XII.
_Against the Fourth Meditation, Of Truth and Falshood._ * _By Which I understand that Error (as it is Error) is not a Real Being, Dependent on God, but is only a Defect; and that therefore to make me Err there is not requisite a Faculty of Erring Given me by God._ ’Tis Certain that _Ignorance_ is only a _Defect_, and that there is no Occasion of any _Positive Faculty_ to make us _Ignorant_. But this position is not so clear in Relation to _Error_, for Stones and Inanimate Creatures cannot _Err_, for this Reason only, because they have not the _Faculties_ of _Reasoning_ or _Imagination_; from whence ’tis Natural for us to Conclude, That to _Err_ there is requisite a _Faculty_ of _Judging_, or at least of _Imagining_, both which _Faculties_ are _Positive_, and given to all _Creatures_ subject to Error, and to Them only. Moreover _Des-Cartes_ says thus, _I find_ (my Errors) _to Depend on two concurring Causes_, viz. _on my Faculty of Knowing, and on my Faculty of Choosing, or Freedom of my Will_. Which seems Contradictious to what he said before; And here also we may note, that _Freedom of Will_ is assumed without any Proof contrary to the Opinion of the Calvinists.
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