1. What is the tripartite definition of knowledge that Plato helped to develop, and what is its rationale? Use a “Gettier-type” example to explain what you think that Edmund Gettier has shown about the tripartite definition.
2. What arguments does Rene Descartes use to undermine our confidence in the reliability of the senses? How does he then argue that he exists as a purely thinking thing? Critique Descartes’ reasoning.
3. What is Cartesian dualism and interactive dualism? What reasons does Rene Descartes give in favor of these theories, and what objections can be raised against them?
4. What is Rene Descartes’ theory of indirect realism (a.k.a., “the representational theory of mind”), and what reasons does he give in favor of it? How does the theory lead to serious doubts about someone’s ability to know how things are “outside” that person’s mind?
5. Explain and critique what points Rene Descartes is making in his second Meditation with his famous example of the wax.
6. Compare and contrast John Locke’s empiricist theory and Rene Descartes’ rationalist theory of knowledge. All things considered, which theory is superior?
