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Directed Studies: Philosophy First Paper, Spring 1999

Please write a double-spaced, four to six page paper on one of the following topics. Papers are due in the Philosophy Department, 108 Connecticut Hall, no later than 11:00 am, January 29, 1998.

1. Carefully explain how Descartes might be accused of reasoning in a circle in his use of God to verify his (Descartes’) clear and distinct perceptions. How might Descartes defend himself against this accusation?

2. What is Descartes’ account of sensory error in Meditation VI? Why does he think that the senses cannot deceive us about the existence of bodies in general? Are these accounts consistent?


And you say, “Oh my God
Am I here all alone?”
Because something is happening here
But you don’t know what it is
Do you, Mister Jones?


explanation of 2nd topic for first paper — added 1/26

To put down in writing what was said in section, let me clarify my understanding of what’s being asked in paper topic 2.  The second topic for the paper, recall, is:

2. What is Descartes’ account of sensory error in Meditation VI? Why does he think that the senses cannot deceive us about the existence of bodies in general? Are these accounts consistent?

The second of the two questions above is asking about Descartes’s argument for the existence of bodies at AT 79-80.  Recall that in this argument, the existence of a non-deceiving God plays a critical role.  The question, then, is that if the existence of God as a non-deceiver guarantees that I’m not wrong about the existence of bodies in general, how is it that I ever go wrong in my sensory judgments?  How can God’s existence as a non-deceiver rule out error about the existence of bodies, while still allowing for the all the errors that we actually make, and that Descartes acknowledges?  For this, you should give Descartes’s account of how we come to make sensory errors (which, for the most part at least, follows the argument for the existence of bodies) to answer the first question.  Explain his argument for the existence of body to answer the second question.  Then, to answer the third question, assess whether Descartes presents a coherent position which successfully allows for the errors he ascribes to us, while at the same time ruling out the possibility of error about “the existence of bodies in general”.

To repeat what I said in class, there really is no clearly correct answer to the third question — reasonable people can disagree here.  The key, then, is not to hit upon the “right” answer, but to give a reasonable defense of the answer you adopt.


Comes right down the highway,
Straight down the line,
Rips into your senses
Through your body and your mind.

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