descartes

Question 1

adventitious ideas

Answer 1

Adventitious ideas arise in your mind due to some external agency

Question 2

innate ideas

Answer 2

have existed in your mind since its conception

Question 3

fictitious ideas

Answer 3

product of the mind’s own invention

Question 4

the CAP quote

Answer 4

‘Now it is manifest by the natural light that there must be at least as much in the efficient and total cause as in the effect of that cause’

Question 5

what’s the malicious demon? quote

Answer 5

‘an agency which acts purposefully and systematically to frustrate human inquiry and the desire for truth’

Question 6

indistinguishability thesis quote

Answer 6

‘there are no certain indications by which we may clearly distinguish wakefulness from sleep’

Question 7

Descartes intuition definition

Answer 7

‘intuition is the indubitable conception of a clear and attentive mind which proceeds solely from the light of reason.’

Question 8

wax argument quote

Answer 8

‘Every consideration whatsoever which contributes to my perception of the wax, or of any other body, cannot but establish even more effectively the nature of my own mind.’

Question 9

how will CAP help Descartes break outta his theatre?

Answer 9

If the objective reality of any of my ideas turns out to be so great that I am sure the same reality does not reside in me, either formally or eminently, and hence that I myself cannot be its cause, it will necessarily follow that I am not alone in the world

Question 10

descartes god definition

Answer 10

By the word ‘God’ I understand a substance that is infinite, independent, supremely intelligent, supremely powerful, and which created both myself and everything else (if anything else there be) that exists

Question 11

stage of doubt when the demon is introduced

Answer 11

‘there is not one of my former beliefs about which a doubt may not be properly raised’

Question 12

Descartes reason for doubt given in the synopsis

Answer 12

‘although the usefulness of such extensive doubt is not apparent at first sight, its greatest benefit lies in freeing us from all our preconceived opinions, and providing the easiest route by which the mind may be led away from the senses. The eventual result of this doubt is to make it impossible for us to have any further doubts about what we subsequently discover to be true’

Question 13

Descartes’ search for first principles

Answer 13

‘to demolish everything completely and start again right from the foundations if I wanted to establish anything at all in the sciences that was stable and likely to last’

Question 14

proof that the external world exists

Answer 14

‘I do not see how God could be understood to be anything but a deceiver if these ideas were transmitted by a source other than corporeal things. It follows that corporeal things exist’

Question 15

an atheist can’t know anything for certain

Answer 15

5M ‘the certainty and truth of all knowledge depends uniquely on the knowledge of the true God’

Question 16

faculty of the will define

Answer 16

the will simply consists in our ability to do or not to do something; or rather, it consists simply in the fact that when the intellect puts something forward, we are moved to affirm or deny or to pursue or avoid it in such a way that we do not feel ourselves to be determined by any external force

Question 17

relationship between intellect and will (own words)

Answer 17

intellect perceives the claims or judgements to which the will assents to or rejects

Question 18

why is it problematic that ‘the scope of the will is wider than that of the intellect’?

Answer 18

The will can push our intellect into assenting to claims which are not actually within our understanding

Question 19

what does Descartes want from the cogito?

Answer 19

Archimedes used to demand just one firm and inmovable point in order to shift the entire earth; so too I can hope for great things if I manage to find just one thing, however slight, that is certain and unshakeable

Question 20

descartes’ formulation of the cogito

Answer 20

I am, I exist is necessarily true whenever it is put forward by me or conceived in my mind

Question 21

2 places Hobbes attacks the Trademark argument

Answer 21

1) representation theory of ideas; reality doesn’t admit of degrees, a hierarchy among ideas is ridiculous
2) idea of God: says we don’t have a clear mental image of God

Question 22

Gassendi’s objection ontological argument

Answer 22

“existence is not a perfection either in God or in anything else; it is that without which no perfections can be present”

Question 23

Caterus’ objection to ontological argument

Answer 23

Conceptual existence isn’t the same as actual existence

Question 24

Descartes’ reply to Caterus’ objection to ontological argument

Answer 24

‘all these objections refer to possible existence. My argument refers to necessary existence’

Question 25

distinction between intellect and imagination

Answer 25

intellect involves the mind turning in on itself and inspecting its innate ideas, whereas the imagination involves the mind turning towards the body and inspecting something ‘which conforms to an idea understood by the mind or perceived by the senses.’