Deck 17: René Descartes: Doubting Our Way to Certainty

Question 1

According to Hobbes, human life

A) represents a distinctive level of soul, quite different from the plant and animal levels.
B) is just a motion of limbs.
C) doesn't differ in principle from the operations of a watch.
D) ceases when the soul departs from the body.

Answer 1

doesn't differ in principle from the operations of a watch.

Question 2

With respect to the human mind and its relation to the body, Hobbes

A) is a metaphysical monist.
B) is, unlike Descartes, a dualist.
C) argues against epiphenomenalism.
D) is, like Descartes, a dualist.

Answer 2

is a metaphysical monist.

Question 3

In a state of nature, Hobbes holds,

A) people do many unjust things.
B) there is no such thing as good and evil.
C) people seek to maximize their pleasure and power.
D) cooperation predominates, until society corrupts the natural goodness of individuals.

Answer 3

people seek to maximize their pleasure and power.

Question 4

Hobbes thinks that a sovereign power

A) exists pure and uncorrupted only in a state of nature.
B) is required to compel men to keep their agreements.
C) must be such as to be under the control of the governed.
D) should involve a separation of powers, as between king and parliament.

Question 5

When Locke says that he will use a "historical, plain method" in investigating human understanding, he means that he

A) will consult the historians as authorities on humanity.
B) won't say anything fancy.
C) will try to trace our ideas to their origin.
D) will throw out any "results" that cannot be historically validated.

Question 6

All our ideas come from experience, Locke says; that is, from

A) sensation and reflection.
B) innate sources of experience.
C) complex ideas of external objects.
D) within the mind.

Question 7

Our idea of substance, Locke says, is

A) the known foundation of all our knowledge of things.
B) the idea of a composite of qualities that regularly appears together in our experience.
C) restricted to the substance we know best, that is, our own soul.
D) the idea of an unknown substratum that has the qualities we experience.

Question 8

The problem of personal identity, if Locke is right,

A) is not a real problem at all, since we know who we are.
B) can be solved by paying close attention to what is present to our consciousness at a given moment.
C) arises because a person can have such different qualities at different times.
D) is solved by appeal to the sameness of the soul that constitutes the person.

Question 9

Locke's views on representative government

A) are formed in part by his views on what life is like in a state of nature.
B) depend on the contract signed between Englishmen and their king.
C) involve no limitation on the powers of the sovereign, once he or she is constituted monarch.
D) guarantee that government will not abuse its powers.

Question 10

Berkeley thinks that

A) philosophers have erred in trying to stick too close to common sense.
B) philosophers have erred in trying to defend skepticism and atheism.
C) things really do have the qualities they seem to have.
D) things do not exist independently of our perception of them.

Question 11

Berkeley thinks that the doctrine of abstract ideas

A) has led to many substantial advances in knowledge.
B) is one of the confusions that lead to atheism.
C) is required to account for our knowledge of substances, particularly our knowledge of God.
D) helps us understand how one mind can communicate its ideas to another mind via language.

Question 12

Berkeley says that it is his intention to

A) turn ideas into things.
B) turn things into ideas.
C) make a significant advance on common sense.
D) raise dust and then complain he cannot see.

Question 13

How does Hobbes explain thinking, particularly the difference between unregulated and regulated thinking?

Question 14

Why does Hobbes think life in a state of nature is "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short"?

Question 15

Why does Hobbes think the establishment of a social contract demands a "coercive power"-that is, a sovereign?

Question 16

What does Hobbes mean when he speaks of a "law" of nature and a "right" of nature? Give an example of each.

Question 17

What, according to Locke, is the origin of all our ideas? And how does he understand that?

Question 18

What is the origin of our idea of substance, according to Locke?

Question 19

In what does personal identity consist, according to Locke? And in what does it not consist?

Question 20

What is a nominal essence, what does Locke contrast it with, and how does he make use of this idea?

Question 21

What sort of government does Locke believe a social contract would reasonably create?

Question 22

What is Berkeley's critique of abstract ideas?

Question 23

How does Berkeley attack the idea that although secondary qualities exist only in being perceived, primary qualities are in things independently of perception?

Question 24

Does Berkeley deny the existence of material substances?

Question 25

What role does God play in Berkeley's philosophy?

Question 26

Contrast Descartes' view of the mind with that of Hobbes. Include a discussion of thinking, imagining, dreaming, and willing. Do not neglect any arguments offered by these philosophers on behalf of their beliefs.

Question 27

Show how Locke's views about substance are informed by his convictions concerning how we get our ideas, together with his doctrine of abstract ideas.

Question 28

Compare the views of Hobbes and Locke on life in a state of nature, together with the prescription each provides on how to get beyond its inconveniences.

Question 29

Berkeley claims to be a defender of common sense. Explain how he thinks his doctrine of esse est percipi can be made consistent with the two commonsense principles about external objects.

Question 30

What is Berkeley's argument for the conclusion that only spirits and their ideas exist?

Question 31

What is Locke's view on abstract ideas? What is Berkeley's criticism of this view, and what does he recommend in its place?