Midterm Study/Review Guide, Philosophy 3010 -002, Sprint 2026

How to Use this Resource.

Descartes Segment

1. What is Descartes' objective in the Meditations and what is his general strategy for achieving it? You should be able to define 'knowledge' (justified true belief + indubitability/certainty). What role does "certainty" play in Descartes' account of the acquisition of absolute knowledge? How does the dreaming hypothesis fit into this discussion? How does the Evil Demon Hypothesis come up, and what purpose does it serve? Be sure that you can state this hypothesis in two sentences. What is the Cogito, and what does it prove? Why is it important to RD's project in the Meditations? What is the role of "reason" in RD's project, and why is he called a rationalist? What is the difference between innate ideas and 'adventitious' ideas, and how is it important in RD's solution to the problem he poses at the beginning of the Meditations?

2. What is the point of the discussion of the wax in Meditation II? Is it primarily to establish that the mind is better known than the body, or is it rather to show that even bodies are known best by means independent of sense perception? What is Descartes' evidence for this latter claim?

3. In Meditation III Descartes offers an argument the conclusion of which is that God exists. What is the primary evidence in favor of most of the premises in this argument (the argument from ideas we learned about on Handout 2)?

4. What is the Cartesian Circle and why does this problem, if it is a problem for Descartes' proof for the existence of God in Meditation III, undermine his effort to establish that God is not a deceiver? (Hint: the answer to the second question in #3 above helps to generate the 'circle' of which RD is accused by some critics).

5. What is objective reality, and how does it differ from formal being or objective being? Does a unicorn have objective being? Does the idea of God have formal being? Does it have objective reality?

6. What is the source of the 'problem of error' that Descartes introduces early in Meditation IV? Given this problem, what is RD's initial solution to this problem? Is there more than one problem of error, and if so, how are they different? Why does RD say that just because my intellect is limited does not imply that my intellect is imperfect? What faculty of mind do I have that is as infinite and perfect as the same faculty of God's?

7. Why doesn't RD's defeat of the Evil Demon Hypothesis also defeat the dream hypothesis (hint: God gave me my power to dream, so in allowing me to have vivid dreams, God is not deceiving me). Also, why is the dream hypothesis insufficient grounds for doubting all sense beliefs (hint: the painter's analogy offers a clue to the answer).

8. How does RD prove that the world of bodies in space exists? (hint: this proof depends on a natural belief we have about the causes of our sense perceptions).

9. What is the Mind-Body Problem? What is Substance Dualism? Property Dualism? Psychophysical interactionism? How does subst. dualism and psychophys. interactionism lead to the mind/body problem? Which philosopher, in your reading, first generates this problem, and how does he solve it (in his own mind, anyway)? What do you think of his solution? Why? How does Descartes prove that mind and body are distinct substances? How does he view the relationship between mind and body?

10. In Meditation VI Descartes finally establishes that the external world exists. By what simple argument does he establish this conclusion?

11. In class we have considered one kind of substance monism that attempts to eliminate the mind/body problem while giving an adequate account of physical and mental phenomena. What is immaterialism (aka 'mental monism')?

Leibniz Segment

1. How does Leibniz avoid the mind/body problem? What does he mean by the 'pre-established harmony' between mental and physical phenomena in our experience?

2. What are the characteristics of a monad? How many kinds of monads are there? Are all monads necessary for the existence of the world, or can the world exist even with some missing?

3. What are the main steps in Leibniz' argument that this is the best of all possible worlds? If this is not the best of all possible worlds, then something must be wrong with Leibniz' argument. If you had the job of producing a criticism of one of the premises in this argument, which premise would you criticize, and how?

4. Why are possible worlds necessary to support the practice of making contrary-to-fact claims? Why does free will, if we have such a faculty, seem to require the existence of possible worlds?

5. Leibniz says God cannot create a perfect world. Why not?

Locke Segment

1. Locke begins his Essay by offering a series of arguments the purpose of which is to show that the doctrine of innate ideas is incorrect about the origins of any of our ideas. Why is this a good strategy for someone like Locke who wants to defeat rationalist approaches to knowledge of nature? There are two possible doctrines of innate ideas that we discussed as possible targets of Locke's criticisms. One is the subtle doctrine, and the other is the simple doctrine. How do they differ? Be prepared to offer at least one of Locke's arguments against each of these two versions of the doctrine of innate ideas.

2. Since the mind begins tabula rasa (i.e., as a 'blank slate'), where do the first ideas/mental content come from? Locke's answer lies in his Acquisition Thesis. What does this thesis assert? What are some of the consequences that follow from the thesis (hint: the answer to Molyneux's Problem involves at least two of these consequences)?

3. What is a simple idea of sensation? A simple idea of reflection? A complex idea? A general idea (i.e., a concept)? You should be able to give examples of each.

4. How are simple ideas produced (first, where do they originate, and second, how do we identify them)? How are complex ideas produced? How are concepts produced (and what kinds of complex ideas are not concepts)?

Sample Essay Questions:

a. Explain the origins of the mind-body problem in Descartes' Meditations, give Descartes' solution to this problem, and then offer a critique of this solution. At some point in the essay, you should indicate how Leibniz' philosophy avoids the mind-body problem, and what new problem emerges for Leibniz given his way of avoiding it.

b. In the first Meditation, Descartes raises several skeptical objections to the possibility of knowledge. Among these is the following worry:

Indeed! As if I did not remember other occasions when I have been tricked by exactly similar thoughts while asleep? As I think about this more carefully, I see plainly that there are never any sure signs by means of which being awake can be distinguished from being asleep. The result is that I begin to feel dazed, and this very feeling only reinforces the notion that I may be asleep. (READINGS: 5)

Not until the last paragraph of the sixth Meditation (READINGS; 33) does Descartes reply directly to this skeptical doubt. Why does Descartes even feel that it is necessary to reply, if he has already (or so he thinks) refuted the evil-demon skeptic, proved God's existence and nondeceitfulness, and shown that the external world exists? Spell out the argument in favor of dream-skepticism as given in the first Meditation, and then describe and critically assess Descartes' reply to it in the sixth Meditation. In your opinion, has Descartes adequately refuted the dream skeptic? If not, then show why not.

c. At the beginning of his Essay on Human Understanding John Locke gives several arguments against the doctrine of innate ideas. Please explain the difference between the simple and subtle doctrines of innate ideas, and then give at least two arguments given by Locke that is addressed (or plausibly can be thought to attack) each of these doctrines. Which of these critical arguments of Locke's seems to be successful? What kind of reply can be given by the innatist that could neutralize the best of Locke's attacks on the doctrine?