Deck 9: Descartes: Doubt and Certainty

Question 1

Descartes sets out to examine his opinions in order to __________.

A) better understand his nature
B) achieve intellectual purity
C) establish a firm and permanent structure for the sciences
D) better understand God

Answer 1

C

Question 2

Descartes seeks to give all knowledge a foundation as firm as that of __________.

A) empirical science
B) mathematics
C) revealed religion
D) morality

Answer 2

B

Question 3

Descartes says that, for all he knows, he may be __________.

A) dreaming
B) a god
C) infallible
D) perfect

Answer 3

A

Question 4

Descartes declares that an evil demon __________.

A) undoubtedly exists
B) could not possibly exist
C) could possibly be deceiving him
D) must exist if God exists

Question 5

Descartes argues against trusting the senses on the grounds that __________.

A) they never directly deceive him
B) they sometimes deceive him
C) God allows sensory deception
D) sense perception is indubitable

Question 6

Descartes declares that he is a __________.

A) body
B) dream
C) thing that thinks
D) thing that cannot exist

Question 7

Descartes seeks __________ as the foundation of knowledge.

A) divine revelation
B) probability
C) certainty
D) sense experience

Question 8

Descartes supposes that everything he sees is __________.

Question 9

Epistemology is the philosophical study of __________.

A) reality
B) knowledge
C) divinity
D) morality

Question 10

Propositional knowledge consists in __________.

A) knowing how to do something
B) knowing that something is the case
C) knowing what something feels like
D) knowing why something is good

Question 11

In order to know a proposition, you must believe, it must be __________, and you must be __________ in believing it.

A) objective; certain
B) true; justified
C) necessary; confident
D) indubitable; correct

Question 12

Skepticism is the view that we lack __________.

A) knowledge in some fundamental way
B) limited knowledge
C) a connection between knowledge and reality
D) a connection between knowledge and ethics

Question 13

A priori knowledge is knowledge gained __________.

A) from divine revelation
B) from sense experience
C) independently of or before sense experience
D) from tradition

Question 14

Knowledge that depends entirely on sense experience is called __________ knowledge.

A) a posteriori
B) synthetic
C) a priori
D) analytic

Question 15

Those who believe that through unaided reason we can come to know what the world is like are called __________.

A) empiricists
B) skeptics
C) rationalists
D) dogmatists

Question 16

__________ is the view that our knowledge of the empirical world comes solely through sense experience.

A) Rationalism
B) Empiricism
C) Dogmatism
D) Skepticism

Question 17

According to Descartes, if __________ is his standard, he cannot tell the difference between __________.

A) sensation; dreaming and waking
B) reason; dreaming and waking
C) revelation; prayer and argument
D) tradition; prayer and argument

Question 18

Descartes supposes that he is dreaming because he cannot distinguish __________.

A) the good from the bad
B) the real from the unreal
C) the true from the false
D) dreaming from waking

Question 19

Descartes initially rejects the idea that all his sense-based beliefs could be false because __________.

A) they are perceptions
B) we are used to using them to navigate through life
C) his immediate sensations seem to be obviously reliable
D) God wouldn't deceive him about his senses

Question 20

Descartes deepens his doubts at the end of Meditation I by supposing he is being deceived by __________.

A) the Church
B) an evil genius
C) God
D) sensation

Question 21

After using the dream argument to cast doubt on his knowledge of material reality, Descartes extends his skepticism to include knowledge of __________.

A) morality
B) God's existence
C) Platonic Forms
D) mathematics

Question 22

At the beginning of Meditation II, Descartes arrives at the certainty of __________.

A) the evil genius
B) God's existence
C) his existence as a thinking thing
D) his sense perception

Question 23

Descartes claims to have discovered a first principle for acquiring knowledge according to which all things __________.

A) known to be true and good are knowable
B) clearly and distinctly perceived are true
C) attributable to divine providence are true
D) hidden from the evil genius are knowable

Question 24

Descartes argues that God __________.

A) is not a deceiver
B) is a deceiver
C) is subject to the evil genius's machinations
D) dispenses knowledge

Question 25

Descartes argues that God __________.

A) can be a deceiver because he can do what he wants
B) cannot be a deceiver because he is perfect
C) cannot be subject to the evil genius's machinations, because he is superior to the evil genius
D) dispenses knowledge, and as such is responsible for Descartes's certainty

Question 26

Descartes argues that he is capable of knowledge because __________.

A) God is not subject to the evil genius's machinations
B) the evil genius cannot prevent him from knowing that things like wax exist
C) God would not allow him to be deceived if he correctly applies his God-given abilities
D) the certainty of the "I think" means he can know objects are real

Question 27

Descartes knows the wax is still wax, despite its changes, because __________.

A) of rational intuition
B) he believes it is the case
C) the evil genius can't deceive him about this
D) of sense perception

Question 28

Descartes reasons that if we rely solely on __________, then we have to conclude that the wax does not remain the same.

A) rational intuition
B) God
C) the evil genius
D) sense perception

Question 29

Descartes asserts, "I am, I exist, is necessarily true __________."

A) so long as God does not deceive me
B) each time that I am not being deceived by the evil genius
C) each time that I pronounce it, or that I mentally conceive it
D) each time that God reminds me

Question 30

Descartes asserts that the perception of the wax is "neither an act of __________."

A) mind but divine revelation
B) mind but vision and touch
C) vision nor of touch . . . but only of imagination
D) vision nor of touch, nor of imagination . . . but only an intuition of the mind

Question 31

Descartes says there are very few ways that we can tell whether we are dreaming.

Question 32

Descartes says that because it is possible that an evil genius is deceiving him, he can never be sure of anything, including his own existence.

Question 33

According to Descartes, only beliefs that are certain can count as knowledge.

Question 34

Descartes concludes that there is no way out of his deep skepticism.

Question 35

Descartes declares that he knows with high probability that he is.

Question 36

For Descartes, the statement "I am, I exist" is necessarily true every time he utters it.

Question 37

Descartes establishes with certainty that corporeal things exist and that he has a body.

Question 38

Descartes believes that anything conceivable is logically possible.

Question 39

Descartes believes that his consciousness must reside in the mind of God.

Question 40

Descartes cannot find a principle of knowledge.

Question 41

Descartes asserts that God would not deceive him because God is perfect.

Question 42

Descartes claims that a misuse of his intellect results in false judgments.

Question 43

Descartes rejects the existence of innate ideas.

Question 44

Although Descartes is able to cast doubt on his knowledge of material reality, he finds the abstract propositions of mathematics impossible to doubt.

Question 45

Descartes's first principle of knowledge is about the clarity and distinctness of his ideas.

Question 46

Descartes thinks that, since God could be deceiving him, God is not all good.

Question 47

Descartes concludes that he cannot know whether the same wax remains throughout its changes.

Question 48

According to Descartes, material bodies are ultimately known by an intuition of the mind rather than by the senses.