[Be sure you are familiar with the format and ground rules for this exam.]

Questions will be referred to by their "names," listed to their left.

"Name"	Question
D-MET	Explain Descartes' method of trying to achieve certainty in his beliefs. Does Descartes through this method find that there is some claim that he can know for certain? If so, explain how he comes to know this claim for certain, and how he uses his method to arrive at this knowledge. If he does not come to know something for certain through use of his method, does he think that he does? If so, why is he wrong about this? Critically discuss.
D-DRE	What ground of doubt does Descartes find for beliefs apparently derived from sense experience? Explain how this is ground of doubt for those beliefs. Is this a ground of doubt for other beliefs which are not based in the senses? Why or why not? Is there some other ground of doubt which calls into question more beliefs than this ground of doubt? What is it? Critically discuss.
D-GDC	At one point in Meditation I Descartes considers the possibility that he is being deceived every time he thinks about mathematics. As an objection to this possibility he wonders "perhaps God has not willed that I be thus deceived, for it is said that he is good in the highest degree." Explain how this is an objection to the possibility that Descartes is constantly deceived and explain Descartes's answer to this objection.
D-EVG	Explain the point(s) Descartes is trying to make in talking of an evil genius or a malicious demon. Critically discuss.
D-JOK	Near the beginning of the second Meditation Descartes wonders whether he might come to know "for certain that there is nothing in the world that is certain." Is this possible? Why or why not?
D-CES	How does Descartes convince himself that he can be certain that he exists? Explicate and critically discuss his argument. Is our own existence something we can know for certain? Is there anything else that we can know with certainty? Why or why not?
D-IAM	What, according to Descartes (by the end of Meditation II), is he? Explain what this means, what Descartes doesn't think he is, and how he thinks he knows what he is.
D-KNO	Descartes claims that the mind is more easily known than the body. Explain and critically discuss the argument he gives for this claim in Meditation II.
D-WAX	Explain the "wax" example in the second Meditation. What is the point (or what are the points) Descartes is trying to make in using this example? How does the example serve to illustrate this point (or these points)? Explain.
D-CER	By the end of the second Meditation what beliefs does Descartes claim he can be certain of? What does he think he cannot (yet) be certain of? Explain and critically discuss.
D-RUL	What is the "general rule" that Descartes proposes near the beginning of the third Meditation? Explain the rule and the role in plays in his subsequent argumentation. Critically discuss.
D-WGD	Why does Descartes think it is important to his project that he prove the existence of God? Explain and critically discuss.
D-T&I	Into what categories does Descartes divide thoughts? What are the differences among these types of thoughts? Into what three categories does Descartes divide ideas? Explain the three categories and for each give an example of idea which seems to be of that type. Does this seem an adequate taxonomy of ideas? Why or why not?
D-ADV	What reasons does Descartes initially suggest in Meditation III for supposing that some of his ideas resemble objects existing outside of him? On what grounds does he reject these reasons? Critically discuss.
D-OBR	What does Descartes mean by "objective reality?" Explain. What causal principles does Descartes proposed concerning reality and objective reality in particular? Explain these, giving examples of their application. Critically discuss.
D-GOD	Explain the argument Descartes furnishes in Meditation III for the existence of God (being sure to explain the meaning of key terms in it). Consider some of the objections Descartes raises to his argument and explain his reply to them.
D-SOU	Descartes asks "From what source, then do I derive my existence?" What is his answer? How does he show that other plausible answers are mistaken?
D-G5	In Meditation V Descartes offers an argument for the existence of God. Carefully explain and critically discuss this argument.
D-M&B	Descartes argues in Meditation VI that there is a real distinction between the body and the mind. Explain his arguments for this position. Explicate various ways of interpreting his principal argument for this thesis. Critically discuss, exploring possible objections to the argument.
H-ANAL	Explain argument by analogy. Give an example of an argument by analogy other than one involving God, and show how the argument fits into the form of an analogy.
H-NATT	Explain what natural theology is and what positions the various characters in Hume's Dialogues take on the possibility of success in natural theology.
H-LOOK	Explain the "Look round the world ..." argument concerning the existence and nature of God offered by Cleanthes in Hume's Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion.
H-PH-O	Explain as clearly as you can and in some detail the objections Philo raises to the main argument Cleanthes offered to prove for the existence of God and to establish what God is like.
H-LIKE	Philo says that the principle Cleanthes appeals to in his primary argument in Hume's Dialogues is "Like effects prove like causes." Explain how this principle does (or does not) figure into Cleanthes' argument.
H-COP	Cleanthes says "a caviller might raise all the same objections to the Copernican system which you have urged against my reasonings." What are Cleanthes reasonings which are in question? What objections did Philo raise against those reasonings? Why does it seem to Cleanthes that the same objections could be raised against the "Copernican system?" Explain Philo's response to this. Critically discuss.
H-IDE	In Part IV of Hume's Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion Philo asks Cleanthes "How, therefore, shall we satisfy ourselves concerning the cause of that Being whom you suppose the Author of Nature, or ... the Ideal World into which you trace the material?" What does Philo mean by "the Ideal World" here? What is the problem that Philo is pointing out here with Cleanthes' position? What does Philo propose as a solution? What is Cleanthes' reply? Is it adequate? Critically discuss.
H-ATTR	Name several traits commonly attributed to God which Philo argues (in Part V) cannot be established by the argument Cleanthes has offered to establish the nature of God. Why does Philo think these cannot be established by the argument?
H-ANI	In Part VI of Hume's Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion Philo likens the universe to an animal. Explain this analogy. On this analogy, according to Philo, what role does a Deity play? What is Cleanthes' criticism of this analogy? What kind of living thing, according to Cleanthes is the universe more like? Why? Critically discuss.
H-NEW	In Part VIII of Hume's Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion Philo offers a "new hypothesis of cosmogony." Explain this hypothesis. What is the hypothesis supposed to account for? Explain. What is Cleanthes' objection to the hypothesis? Critically evaluate the hypothesis and Cleanthes' reply.
H-APR	In Part IX of Hume's Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion Demea offers an argument for the existence of a Deity. Carefully explain Demea's argument. Explain the objections Cleanthes raises to this argument. Critically evaluate the argument and Cleanthes' reply.
H-EVID	How does the evidential problem of evil differ from the logical problem of evil? Critically discuss.
H-E-AR	Carefully explicate the problem of evil as an argument to the conclusion that God does not exist. Explain each premise in the argument and how the flow of the argument (i.e. how the inferences go from the premises to the subconclusions and the final conclusion).
H-E-OB	Explore possible objections to the argument against the existence of God based on the logical problem of evil and explain how a defender of that argument might reply to those objections. Critically discuss.
H-E-RC	In Hume's Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion Demea suggests, as a "solution" to the problem of evil, that "the present evil phenomena ... are rectified ... in some future period of existence?" Explain this suggestion. On what grounds does Cleanthes reject it? Is Cleanthes right to reject it? Why or why not? Critically discuss.