Day 4: Test 1 (1^st half);
Descartes, Starting Over (2^nd half)

•           General Remarks on Philosophy and this course

•           Introduction to Descartes

•           Descartes’ Method

•           General Remarks on the Structure of Knowledge

•           What Can be Called into Doubt?

•           Read Meditations Two, Three, & Four for next time

Introduction to Descartes

•           Descartes (1596-1650): reacting to the ancients

•           Contributions to Philosophy

•           Contributions to Mathematics

•           Contributions to Physics

•           Other Contributions

•           Descartes sees the above contributions as connected to one another

Descartes’ Method

•        Descartes says that once in our lives we should . . . do what?

Descartes’ Method

•           In questioning everything so far as we can, how should we proceed?

•           Do we question every claim separately?  Why or why not?

•           When we question a claim do we have to prove that it is false?  Why or why not?

General Remarks on the Structure of Knowledge

•           Descartes is a foundationalist

•           Commitments of foundationalism

•           An example

What Can be Called into Doubt?

•           What is the point of the observation that sometimes we make mistakes about objects that are far away or very small?

•           What is the point of the observation that we cannot tell the difference between a dreamed experience and a waking experience?

•           What is the point of bringing up the evil deceiver?