L’indéfini and the first Cartesian proof of the existence of God

Abstract

The first Cartesian proof of the existence of God has as a necessary condition the certitude about finitude of the Ego. This certainty is obtained, on the other hand, through acts by which the Ego knows its own finitude, comparing with an implicit idea of l’infini (God). Those acts are doubt and desire. However, a better understanding of the problems involved here require the previous analysis of the ideas of l’infini and l’indéfini. I argue in this work that l’indéfini is the term occasionally designating what the term l’inifini designates by analogy of attribution, when Descartes predicates it to ontologically finite entities, like number and the extension.