Study Guide Worksheet #1

Preface to the reader

1. What does Descartes tell his reader he intends to establish about the nature of the human mind? This view of the nature of the human mind follows from some fact…what is that fact?

Synopsis of the following six Meditations

2. Given what he says in the Synopsis, what do you suppose is Descartes’ view of the role sense perception plays in making possible our knowledge of ‘material things’?

3. Descartes says that he is going to discuss the nature of the soul, and ‘corporeal nature’, in the Second Meditation. What do these two words (i.e., ‘soul’ and ‘corporeal nature’) refer to?

4. Does Descartes define what he means by the phrase ‘clear and distinct perception’ and its variants in the Preface? If so, what is the definition? If not, what do you suppose this phrase might mean?

5. Does Descartes at any point in the Synopsis suggest that he will establish any claims, including claims about God, on the basis of faith? If you do find him saying something that suggests this to you, cite the passage and explain why you think this shows Descartes is consciously making an appeal to beliefs about the world, man or God based on faith. If you do not, how would you explain this lack of any appeal to faith in his preface to the Meditations? 6. What, according to Descartes, are the entities with respect to which we have the most ‘certain and evident’ knowledge?

First Meditation

7. In the first paragraph Descartes offers an explicit statement of his ultimate objective in conducting the project he introduces to his reader in the first meditation. What is this objective (there is only one answer that is supported by the text, though Descartes mentions in this first paragraph several things he plans to do)?

8. From the third to the twelfth paragraphs Descartes gives his reader four reasons for doubting beliefs formed on the basis of what we learn through sense perception. Name these four and explain what Descartes concludes about whether we should trust beliefs based on sense perception in each case (i.e., should we withhold judgment about all beliefs given each of the grounds for doubt he considers; should we even bother to doubt any of our sense beliefs when faced with any of them?).

9. What, exactly, is the dream hypothesis, and how does the painter analogy clarify and narrow its meaning such that some beliefs based on sense perception can still be trusted, even if from a certain point in your life you were dreaming all of your experiences all the time? 10. What is the malicious demon hypothesis , exactly, and what kinds of beliefs does it place in doubt? How, in particular, does it place mathematical beliefs in doubt?

11. What beliefs can we rely upon by the end of the first meditation?

12. What possible purpose could these skeptical challenges to sense perceptual and mathematical beliefs serve? What is the point of this ‘method of doubt’?