Deck 16: From Medieval to Modern Europe

Question 1

Among the rules of Descartes' method is the following:

A) Doubt only what you have clear and distinct, conclusive reason for doubting.
B) Multiply possibilities lest you miss a plausible alternative.
C) Accept only what an authoritative source reveals.
D) Make comprehensive reviews.

Answer 1

Make comprehensive reviews.

Question 2

In the Meditations, Descartes aims to

A) establish the irrelevance of God to modern physics.
B) show that the soul is identical with the body.
C) provide a firm foundation for knowledge.
D) prove that first philosophy is founded on a mistake.

Answer 2

provide a firm foundation for knowledge.

Question 3

We ought to doubt our senses, Descartes says, because

A) they sometimes deceive us.
B) we don't understand God's purposes.
C) there exists an evil deceiver intent on leading us astray.
D) we are dreaming.

Answer 3

they sometimes deceive us.

Question 4

On the representational theory,

A) we have direct and immediate access to the world around us, as it is represented by our ideas.
B) what we know best are the ideas in our minds.
C) we can tell which ideas represent things correctly by observing their causal conditions.
D) things serve as representations of our ideas.

Question 5

The result of Descartes' methodical doubt is that

A) he knows nothing.
B) he knows that he is a rational animal.
C) he doubts his own existence.
D) he finds something that can indicate a criterion for knowledge.

Question 6

What Descartes calls the "light of nature"

A) certifies something as true because it is lighted up as so clear and distinct it cannot be doubted.
B) is the same as what is "taught by nature."
C) is known innately as revealed to us by God.
D) cannot be relied on unless it is backed up by extensive argument, going back to simples and moving in small steps to complexes.

Question 7

Innate ideas, according to Descartes, are

A) what every infant already possesses by inheritance.
B) what everyone comes to have by virtue of common human experience.
C) ideas composed by us out of other ideas.
D) ideas I would have even if nothing but I existed.

Question 8

Descartes' first argument for God's existence, in Meditation III,

A) is a causal argument.
B) moves directly from the idea of God to God's existence.
C) relies on the principle that everything must originally have come from nothing.
D) makes use of the idea that there must be an infinite regress to guarantee infinite perfection.

Question 9

Why, after proving God's existence, does human error become a problem for Descartes?

A) Because we might have made a mistake in the proof.
B) Because we know our senses sometimes deceive us.
C) Because we know God is perfect and wouldn't deceive us.
D) Because it's always a problem to discriminate error from the truth.

Question 10

The essence of material things, according to Descartes, is

A) extendedness.
B) externality to the mind.
C) existence.
D) solidity.

Question 11

Descartes argues that material things exist by

A) pointing out that not only can we see them, but we can touch them as well.
B) relying on the fact that our senses do not always deceive us.
C) showing that even if the evil demon deceives us, it still seems to us as though they do exist.
D) claiming that if they did not exist, God would be a deceiver.

Question 12

Descartes thinks it is important to prove the existence of God because

A) otherwise many people would not believe.
B) you should not trust the Scriptures to tell you the truth.
C) otherwise you couldn't be sure of anything but your own existence.
D) it is an essential bulwark for a pious life.

Question 13

State the four rules of Descartes' method, which he thinks will allow us to make intellectual progress.

Question 14

Analyze complex problems into their simple elements.

Question 15

Beginning with the simpler, construct solutions moving toward the more complex.

Question 16

Make comprehensive reviews, being sure nothing has been left out.

Question 17

To what certainty does Descartes' methodical doubt lead? What makes him think he is right about that?

Question 18

What qualities belong essentially to something like a bit of wax? Why?

Question 19

What is the problem of the criterion? And how does Descartes think he is, after Meditation II, in a position to solve that problem?

Question 20

Why does Descartes feel a need to inquire about the existence and nature of God?

Question 21

Descartes distinguishes between what he is "taught by nature" and what "the light of nature" teaches him. Explain.

Question 22

How does the conviction that God is not a deceiver help Descartes establish the reality of an external, material world?

Question 23

How does the distinction between understanding and will explain the possibility of error?

Question 24

What is the representational theory of knowledge and perception? And what problem does it face?

Question 25

Use Descartes' discussion of the phantom limb phenomenon to explain how he believes God's goodness is compatible with certain types of errors.

Question 26

Harry Frankfurt, in a presidential address to the American Philosophical Association, said that modern philosophy was born in anxiety. If you reflect on Descartes, what would you say he meant?

Question 27

What is the hypothesis of the evil demon? How does Descartes believe he can rule that hypothesis out?

Question 28

Define these terms briefly:
-Solipsism:

Question 29

Define these terms briefly:
-Innate ideas:

Question 30

Define these terms briefly:
-Formal reality:

Question 31

Set down in outline form either of Descartes' two causal proofs for the existence of God.

Question 32

How does Descartes argue for the independent existence of soul and body?

Question 33

What is Descartes' argument for the reality of material things?

Question 34

What problems does Descartes' work in philosophy set for future philosophical consideration?