This examination counts as fifteen percent (15%) of your course grade.

This is a closed-book, in-class examination on the scheduled date.

There will be two parts.

• Part I (for ten (10) points) will ask you to answer ten (10) "short answer" questions worth one (1) point each. By "short answer" I mean that a sentence or two (or three) will suffice.
• Part II (for five (5) points) will ask you to answer one (1) essay question worth five (5) points. You will have a choice from two (2) questions on this part. By "essay" I mean a discussion that will probably take more than a paragraph or two, but should take no more than a few pages.

Ground Rules

As always, cheating will not be tolerated. No help in answering the questions may be received from anyone (except yourself) during the examination. You may not use books or notes during the examination.

Sample Questions and Points to Study

• Do you have any false beliefs? Can you give an example of one? Why or why not?

• Offer an example of a belief which is based upon some other belief (and state what that other belief is). Are all our beliefs based upon other beliefs in this way? Why or why not? Critically discuss.

• What did Descartes claim he was trying to achieve (in writing the Meditations)?

• Why, according to Descartes, was it not necessary to show a belief to be false to justify rejection of it?

• Why, according to Descartes, need one not explore each of one's beliefs in order to cast each of them into doubt?

• What, according to Descartes, are many of our ordinary beliefs based on?

• What three reasons did Descartes come up with for doubting beliefs based on the senses?

• 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.

• 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.

• At one point in Meditation one 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.

• Explain the point(s) Descartes is trying to make in first bringing up the notion of an evil genius or a malicious demon. Critically discuss.

• Is there any way that you can be certain that you are not a brain in a vat connected by wires to a supercomputer? Critically explore.

• 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?

• Can we know anything for certain? Why or why not? Critically discuss.

• What is the "Archimedian point" Descartes is looking for? In what sense is it an "Archimedian point?"

• 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?

• What does "cogito, ergo sum" mean?

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

• Explain how Descartes proves (or at least tries to prove) that material objects (corporeal things) exist.

• Can ideas, according to Descartes, be false? Why or why not? What can be false? Explain.

• Why does Descartes think it is important to his project that he prove the existence of God? Explain and critically discuss.

• 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?

• 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.

• What is Descartes' solipsistic predicament? Explain how he tries to get out of it. Critically discuss.

• 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.

• 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.

• Into what categories does Hume classify what he calls "perceptions?" Give examples of perceptions that fall into each category.

• What, according to Hume, is the difference between what he calls "impressions" and what he calls "ideas?" What does he think the relation is between impressions and ideas? Is he right about that? Critically discuss.

• What, according to Hume, are the limits of the creative power of the mind? Explain in detail. Give examples. Is Hume right about this? Critically discuss.

• What, according to Hume, do all ideas derive from?

• What claim that Hume makes is the overall thesis of his section on the origin of ideas?

• Explicate and critically discuss the arguments Hume offers for his thesis that all ideas are derived from impressions.

• How do we come to have an idea of God, according to Hume? Is his view on this plausible? Critically discuss.

• Into what two groups does Hume categorize objects of inquiry? Explain the differences between these two groups.

• What are the differences between relations of ideas and matters of fact, according to Hume? Give several different examples of each.

• Hume asks "what is the nature of that evidence which assures us of any real existence and matter of fact, beyond the present testimony of our senses, or the records of our memory." What is his answer? Explain, using examples.