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Why Do We Make Mistakes? Descartes on God, Free Will, and Human Error


Okay, so here’s the thing: in the first and third meditations, Descartes basically wants to prove the existence of God. The reasoning is kind of wild but makes sense when you think about it. He says that we’re finite beings, right? Limited, mortal, tiny in comparison to… well, literally everything. But somehow, we have the ability to think about infinite things - immortality, omniscience, omnipotence, perfection… stuff that doesn’t exist anywhere on Earth.

It’s kind of like this: imagine you’ve only ever seen light your entire life. Could you even imagine darkness? Not really, right? You wouldn’t even have a concept of it. So, the fact that humans can think of an infinite, perfect, omnipotent being means that something like that must exist. Mind-blowing, right? So from this point on, Descartes is working with the assumption that God exists.

But here’s the question that immediately hits you: if God is perfect, how can humans still make mistakes? Think about it. A master craftsman makes flawless work, but we’re clearly not flawless. How does that add up? Descartes basically says — maybe humans just don’t inherit all of God’s qualities. The perfection is diluted when it’s given to us. And, honestly, that explanation feels a little unsatisfying because the more skilled the craftsman, the more perfect the creation should be.

Then Descartes kind of gives this amazing analogy that I actually loved: think of it like parents and kids. Parents tell kids, “Don’t cross the street when the light is red,” right? The kid doesn’t fully understand why; they don’t have the maturity, the experience, or the knowledge of the world to grasp the danger. The parent, who knows the world, guides them. In this scenario, humans are the kids and God is… well, the parent. God knows the bigger picture, and maybe our mistakes are just part of how He’s guiding us. Mind-blowing stuff.

Now, onto free will, because this is where it gets even more interesting. Descartes thinks the reason we make errors is because we have both knowledge and free will. Intellect gives us knowledge, but our will is what allows us to act. And here’s the kicker: the will is bigger than our intellect. Knowledge has limits, but free will is unlimited.

So, what does that mean for mistakes? Well, if you know something is wrong and choose it anyway — boom, that’s a misuse of free will. If you’re uncertain, you should abstain from choosing. But if you end up picking the right choice even when uncertain… that’s basically luck. Descartes’ point is that errors happen when we try to exercise our free will beyond what our intellect can fully grasp.

So basically, the source of all mistakes isn’t God messing with us, it’s us misusing the free will we’ve been given. And that, my friends, is why Descartes thinks human error is entirely within our own hands — we just have to be smart enough to know when to act, when to hold back, and when to trust our intellect.

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