PHILOS 111 René Descartes Questions

Study Guide pt. 3 exam 1

When and where did René Descartes live?

Descartes was born in 1596 and died in 1650. He lived in France.

What is the argument from sensory illusion?

Because our senses can be deceptive, we should not trust them as a source of certain knowledge.

What is the argument from dreams?

Because we are not certain of being able to distinguish the dreaming and waking states, the reliability of our senses and the knowledge derived from them should be doubted.

What is the deceiving spirit argument?

Because we cannot be sure that a powerful spirit is deceiving us, all beliefs are open to reasonable doubt.

What are Gettier examples?

Justified true beliefs.

What sorts of arguments make epistemology--and in particular, justified true belief--problematic?

An argument that makes epistemology problematic is the argument that knowledge requires absolute certainty.

What is the evil genius?

The evil genius is an imaginary being or spirit that deceives us into believing something that may not be true.

What is "cogito, ergo sum"?

"I think, therefore I am"

What does Descartes think is most certain? Why is he most certain of this?

Descartes believes the statement “Cogito, ergo sum,” is most certain because if we try to doubt this belief, we end up proving it.

What is the wax experiment? What does this experiment prove, according to Descartes?

The wax experiment is an experiment in which Descartes observes a piece of wax in its solid form and proceeds to melt it; he notes the difference in its sensory qualities.

What is an innate idea? An adventitious idea?

Innate Idea: An idea we are born with. Adventitious Idea: perceptions that appear to arise from some sensory source.

What is rationalism?

The idea knowledge is primarily gained through reason rather than experience.

Is the idea of God adventitious, according to Descartes? Why or why not?

The idea of God is not adventitious because there is nothing in sense experience that could produce this idea.

What is the ontological argument?

The idea of God necessitates God’s existence.

What is the cosmological argument?

God must exist in order to cause an idea of God to be placed in our minds.

What is the difference between formal reality and objective reality? How does Descartes use these concepts in his cosmological argument?

Formal reality: the actual degree of reality a thing has if it exists. Objective reality: the content an idea represents.

What are some problems with the cosmological argument?

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What are some problems with the ontological argument?

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What does it mean to say that "existence is not a predicate"? Who advanced this as a criticism of the ontological argument?

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If God exists, what follows from this according to Descartes?

We can be certain that clear and distinct ideas are true, because God would not deceive us about what seems evident.

What is dualism?

The mind is distinct from the body and can exist independently of it.

What is a self, according to Descartes? What is the argument from doubt? (Thomson 43) From divisibility?

According to Descartes, a self is a consciousness. The argument from doubt is doubting that the body exists, but not doubting the mind exists, therefore the mind is distinct from the body. The argument from divisibility is he, as a thinking thing, must be different in kind from all matter, including his own body.

What is the problem of interaction? The problem of identifying mental substances? The problem of other minds?

POI: First, we can never have direct experience of this interaction. Second, the two types of substance, mind and matter, are utterly different in kind, and this makes interaction between them obscure, placing some doubt on the whole idea of dualism. POMS: wo mate-rial objects that are otherwise identical can be distinguished and identified at different times only by their position in space. POOM: according to Descartes, they could not be conscious beings at all, no matter how sophisticated or simi-lar to my own their behavior was.