PHIL 202 QUESTIONS WITH VERIFIED ANSWERS
The entire fabric of human reason which we employ in the inquisition of nature is badly
put together and built up, and like some magnificent structure without any foundation ...
There was but one course left, therefore—to try the whole thing anew upon a better
plan, and to commence a total reconstruction of sciences, arts, and all human
knowledge, raised upon the proper foundations - Answers - Francis Bacon
But the greatest change I introduce is in the form itself of induction and the judgment
made thereby. For the induction of which the logicians speak, which proceeds by simple
enumeration, is a puerile thing; concludes at hazard; is always liable to be upset by a
contradictory instance; takes into account only what is known and ordinary; and leads to
no result - Answers - Francis Bacon
Now what the sciences stand in need of is a form of induction which shall analyse
experience and take it to pieces, and by a due process of exclusion and rejection lead
to an inevitable conclusion - Answers - Francis Bacon
For the end which this science of mine proposes is the invention not of arguments but of
arts; not of things in accordance with principles, but of principles themselves; not of
probable reasons, but of designations and directions for works. And as the intention is
different, so accordingly is the effect; the effect of the one being to overcome an
opponent in argument, of the other to command nature in action - Answers - Francis
Bacon
I contrive that the office of the sense shall be only to judge of the experiment, and that
experiment itself shall judge of the thing. (5)
The nature of things betrays itself more readily under the vexations of art than in its
usual freedom - Answers - Francis Bacon
The chain of causes cannot by any force be loosed or broken, nor can nature be
commanded except by being obeyed. And so those twin objects, human knowledge and
human power, do really meet in one; and it is from ignorance of causes that operations
fail - Answers - Francis Bacon
Thou when thou turnedst to look upon the works which thy hands had made, sawest
that all was very good, and didst rest from thy labours. But man, when he turned to look
upon the work which his hands had made, saw that all was vanity and vexation of spirit,
and could find no rest therein. Wherefore if we labour in thy works with the sweat of our
brows thou wilt make us partakers of thy vision and thy sabbath. Humbly we pray that
this mind may be steadfast in us, and that through these our hands, and the hands of
others to whom thou shalt give the same spirit, thou wilt vouchsafe to endow the human
family with new mercies - Answers - Francis Bacon
, Some years ago I was struck by the large number of falsehoods that I had accepted as
true in my childhood, and by the highly doubtful nature of the whole edifice that I had
subsequently based on them. I realized that it was necessary . . . 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 - Answers - Descartes
"I am, I exist—that is certain. But for how long? For as long as I am thinking. ... I am,
then, in the strict sense, only a thing that thinks." - Answers - Descartes
"But what am I? A things that thinks. What is that? A thing that doubts, understands,
affirms, denies, is willing, is unwilling, and also imagines and has sensory perceptions."
- Answers - Descartes
"In this first item of knowledge there is simply a clear and distinct perception of what I
am asserting."
"So I now seem to be able to lay it down as a general rule that whatever I perceive very
clearly and distinctly is true." - Answers - Descartes
"Some of my thoughts are as it were the images of things, and it is only in these cases
that the term 'idea' is strictly appropriate—for example, when I think of a man, or a
chimera, or the sky, or an angel, or God." - Answers - Descartes
"It only remains for me to examine how I received this idea [of] God. For I did not
acquire it from the senses ... And it was not invented by me either ... the only remaining
alternative is that it is innate in me, just as the idea of myself is innate in me." - Answers
- Descartes
There are mathematical ideas of material things.
"They ... have their own true and immutable natures."
E.g. a triangle
They have determinate properties.
"It follows that they cannot have been invented by me." (506)
These are innate ideas - Answers - Descartes
"Now ... I have perceived that God exists, and at the same time I have understood that
everything else depends on him, and that he is no deceiver; and I have drawn the
conclusion that everything which I clearly and distinctly perceive is necessarily true." -
Answers - Descartes
"Even though I might be dreaming, if there is anything which is evident to my intellect,
then it is wholly true." - Answers - Descartes
"Thus I see plainly that the certainty and truth of all knowledge depends uniquely on my
awareness of the true God ... And now it is possible for me to achieve full and certain
knowledge of countless matters ... concerning the whole of that corporeal nature which
is the subject-matter of pure mathematics." - Answers - Descartes
The entire fabric of human reason which we employ in the inquisition of nature is badly
put together and built up, and like some magnificent structure without any foundation ...
There was but one course left, therefore—to try the whole thing anew upon a better
plan, and to commence a total reconstruction of sciences, arts, and all human
knowledge, raised upon the proper foundations - Answers - Francis Bacon
But the greatest change I introduce is in the form itself of induction and the judgment
made thereby. For the induction of which the logicians speak, which proceeds by simple
enumeration, is a puerile thing; concludes at hazard; is always liable to be upset by a
contradictory instance; takes into account only what is known and ordinary; and leads to
no result - Answers - Francis Bacon
Now what the sciences stand in need of is a form of induction which shall analyse
experience and take it to pieces, and by a due process of exclusion and rejection lead
to an inevitable conclusion - Answers - Francis Bacon
For the end which this science of mine proposes is the invention not of arguments but of
arts; not of things in accordance with principles, but of principles themselves; not of
probable reasons, but of designations and directions for works. And as the intention is
different, so accordingly is the effect; the effect of the one being to overcome an
opponent in argument, of the other to command nature in action - Answers - Francis
Bacon
I contrive that the office of the sense shall be only to judge of the experiment, and that
experiment itself shall judge of the thing. (5)
The nature of things betrays itself more readily under the vexations of art than in its
usual freedom - Answers - Francis Bacon
The chain of causes cannot by any force be loosed or broken, nor can nature be
commanded except by being obeyed. And so those twin objects, human knowledge and
human power, do really meet in one; and it is from ignorance of causes that operations
fail - Answers - Francis Bacon
Thou when thou turnedst to look upon the works which thy hands had made, sawest
that all was very good, and didst rest from thy labours. But man, when he turned to look
upon the work which his hands had made, saw that all was vanity and vexation of spirit,
and could find no rest therein. Wherefore if we labour in thy works with the sweat of our
brows thou wilt make us partakers of thy vision and thy sabbath. Humbly we pray that
this mind may be steadfast in us, and that through these our hands, and the hands of
others to whom thou shalt give the same spirit, thou wilt vouchsafe to endow the human
family with new mercies - Answers - Francis Bacon
, Some years ago I was struck by the large number of falsehoods that I had accepted as
true in my childhood, and by the highly doubtful nature of the whole edifice that I had
subsequently based on them. I realized that it was necessary . . . 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 - Answers - Descartes
"I am, I exist—that is certain. But for how long? For as long as I am thinking. ... I am,
then, in the strict sense, only a thing that thinks." - Answers - Descartes
"But what am I? A things that thinks. What is that? A thing that doubts, understands,
affirms, denies, is willing, is unwilling, and also imagines and has sensory perceptions."
- Answers - Descartes
"In this first item of knowledge there is simply a clear and distinct perception of what I
am asserting."
"So I now seem to be able to lay it down as a general rule that whatever I perceive very
clearly and distinctly is true." - Answers - Descartes
"Some of my thoughts are as it were the images of things, and it is only in these cases
that the term 'idea' is strictly appropriate—for example, when I think of a man, or a
chimera, or the sky, or an angel, or God." - Answers - Descartes
"It only remains for me to examine how I received this idea [of] God. For I did not
acquire it from the senses ... And it was not invented by me either ... the only remaining
alternative is that it is innate in me, just as the idea of myself is innate in me." - Answers
- Descartes
There are mathematical ideas of material things.
"They ... have their own true and immutable natures."
E.g. a triangle
They have determinate properties.
"It follows that they cannot have been invented by me." (506)
These are innate ideas - Answers - Descartes
"Now ... I have perceived that God exists, and at the same time I have understood that
everything else depends on him, and that he is no deceiver; and I have drawn the
conclusion that everything which I clearly and distinctly perceive is necessarily true." -
Answers - Descartes
"Even though I might be dreaming, if there is anything which is evident to my intellect,
then it is wholly true." - Answers - Descartes
"Thus I see plainly that the certainty and truth of all knowledge depends uniquely on my
awareness of the true God ... And now it is possible for me to achieve full and certain
knowledge of countless matters ... concerning the whole of that corporeal nature which
is the subject-matter of pure mathematics." - Answers - Descartes
