Answer all of this questions 1. Aren’t you strongly inclined to think that you can’t deny that you are now sitting somewhere, reading these words on the page, which is light there” in your hands or in front of your eyes? Why does Descartes say you should doubt it anyway? 2. What do you think of Descartes rule that we shouldn’t completely trust those who have cheated us even once? Does this rule apply to the senses? 3. Could you be dreaming right now? Explain. 4. How does the hypothesis of an evil demon help convince one that all one’s prior beliefs may be false? 5. Is there anything at all that you are so certain about that you could not possibly doubt it? 6. To what certainty does Descartes’ methodical doubt lead? Is he right about that? 7. What, then, does Descartes conclude that he is? 8. Why does Descartes rule out the use of the imagination in answering the question, what am I? 9. What is included in ‘thinking,” as Descartes understands the term? 10. Suppose I feel certain that I see a cat on the mat. Is it certain that there is a cat on the mat? What, in this situation, can I be certain of? 11. What qualities belong to the “beeswax, essentially? 12. Why is our imagination incapable of grasping these qualities of the beeswax? By what faculty do we grasp it? 13. How does the beeswax example help to cure our habitual inclination to trust the senses? 14. Why does Descartes feel the need to inquire about the existence and nature of God? 15. How does the conviction that God is not a deceiver help Descartes to establish the reality of an external, material world?
Sample Solution
