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Remark. The assignment is to read the Synopsis,
Meditation I, and part of Meditation II of René Descartes' Meditations.
Specifically, you should read pp.149
-156 (only to the last full ¶ on bottom of p. 156).
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| 1. At the beginning of Meditation I, Descartes says that he is going
to "rid [himself] of all the opinions which [he] had formerly accepted."
(Descartes, 151) Why on earth would anybody want to do that? (See
both the Synopsis, pp. 149-151, and Meditation I for the answer.) |
| 2. What strategy does Descartes say he is going to use, in performing
this task? To "rid himself" of all these opinions, does he think
he needs to show they are all false, or something weaker than that? Does
he think he needs to take up each belief individually, or is there a way
to process hoards of them at a time? |
| 3. The first doubt that Descartes brings forward concerns the
testimony of his senses. What are the premises of this argument? What is
its conclusion? If the premises were true, would the conclusion have to
be true, too? |
| 4. The second doubt that Descartes brings forward begins with the fact
that he sometimes dreams. What beliefs does he think are called into doubt
by this argument? Which of his beliefs does he suggest are left untouched
by the Dream Argument, and why does he conjecture that the Dream argument
leaves them unscathed? What name does he give to the things these beliefs
are about? Which disciplines investigate these things? |
| 5. The third doubt that Descartes brings forward begins with his belief
in God. What additional beliefs does Descartes mean to call into doubt by
this argument, and how? What objection does he consider, and how does he
reply to it? |
| 6. The fourth doubt that Descartes brings forward starts with the possibility
that God does not exist. What further beliefs does Descartes mean to call
into doubt by this argument, and how? |
| 7. In the last paragraph of Meditation I, Descartes says "I shall
then suppose, not that God who is supremely good and the fountain of youth,
but some evil genius not less powerful than deceitful, has employed his
whole energies in deceiving me . . ." (Descartes, 153) This supposition
is not being used to call any further beliefs into doubt. What, then is
its purpose? |
| 8. In Meditation II, Descartes finally arrives at something he takes to
be known with absolute certainty. What is it? How does he claim to know
it with such absolute certainty? Does this prove the existence of at least
one material object? Why or why not? |