PHIL 111: Introduction to Philosophy

LARKIN: Spring 2003

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DATE: 2-18-03

I. Objectives

A. Appreciate the force and the significance of skeptical considerations

B. Go through Descartes’ Skeptical Arguments and the limitations he finds with each

II. Discussion:

How do you know that you are not right now dreaming?

If you cannot tell whether you are dreaming, does it follow that you canot know whether there is really a desk in front of you?

III. Lecture:

A. Argument from the Unreliability of the Senses

B. The Dream Argument

C. The Evil Genius Argument

IV. Discussion:

Cogito Ergo Sum

V. Next Time

A. Topic: The Cogito, Res Cogitans, and Wax Arguments

B. Reading: Descartes, “Meditation Two”

C. Reading Questions:

1. What proposition or propositions survives the doubt generated by the evil genius argument? Explain why the EG argument is incapable of causing us to doubt those propositions.

2. Given that I can know for certain that I exist, what kind of thing must I be?

3. What is the argument about the piece of wax? What is the point of that argument?

4. Are you convinced that you can be certain that you exist and are essentially a thinking thing? Are you convinced, for example, that you could exist without a physical body? Explain.