PHIL 201 Exam Latest Verified Answers 2024.

PHIL 201 Exam Latest Verified Answers 2024. What is "first philosophy" according to Descartes? (Remember the tree of human knowledge?) [What fundamental things which all other studies rely on does Descartes study in the Meditations?] - CORRECT ANSWER The "first philosophy" is "I experience, therefore I exist". In the tree of human knowledge, the roots are the first philosophy, the trunk is physics and the branches are other sciences. What ultimate goal does Descartes want to achieve by means of doubt? - CORRECT ANSWER Descartes calls all things (which he thinks about) in doubt and cleans up the grounds of uncertain, dubious and untrue claims of knowledge. Then those beliefs that are certain would remain, and they could be employed to provide "a firm and permanent foundation for the science," thereby serving as the basis for all of our other knowledge about the world. What are the benefits of a DOUBT according to Descartes? (See the synopsis.) - CORRECT ANSWER to demolish the foundations for uncertain, dubious and false claims of knowledge. What degree of doubt is sufficient for Descartes to reject a certain type of knowledge (principle) as wholly false? (See also the first two paragraphs of Second Meditation) - CORRECT ANSWER Descartes decided that any view should be rejected if any reason could be stated that would make it dubious. Why does Descartes distrust sensory experience of remote and small objects? (sense deception) - CORRECT ANSWER Descartes pointed out that sometimes we are deceived by our senses, e.g., an object seen from a distance looks different when we are near it (the bent oar in the pond, the water on the road, the tracks which meet at the horizon). What is Descartes' reason to doubt immediate sensory experience and images regarding his body? [Why does he doubt that "I am here, seated by the fire, attired in a dressing gown, have this paper in my hands and other similar matters"?] (dream in sleep) - CORRECT ANSWER Descartes argued that it is possible that all experience is illusory. All of it may be like the experiences that we have in dreams. When we dream, we have the experience of seeing thing taste food, hearing sound and so on. Descartes contended, we actually do not have any absolute guarantee that any of our sense experience, past or present, is not part of a continuous dream.