Exam 5: Can We Be Completely Certain of Anything?

Which of the following claims regarding the validity of the senses did Descartes not make?

Nicolaus Copernicus's On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres argued that

Descartes is often thought to have claimed that you can have certain knowledge about some conscious mental states. Which of the following was not included in these?

When philosophers talk about someone being a skeptic, they usually have in mind someone who

Descartes claimed he was totally sure that he existed because

Set out Descartes's proof of God as well as the objection that argues it's circular.

Describe the role that Descartes's evil demon plays in his epistemology.

Descartes's Meditations on First Philosophy argued that our senses have

Descartes argued that God, being perfectly good, would not allow people to be led into error by vivid and clear perception. Which of the following is not a premise in that argument?

Explain Descartes's ontological argument, including objections to it.

Descartes thought he could show that the evil demon story is false based on the fact that

An a posteriori argument is one that

Richard Rorty thought that when confronted by a radical skeptic the correct response is to

The Meditations on First Philosophy is often said to be the founding work of __________ philosophy.

Descartes posited an "evil demon" that could deceive him about everything except

Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) refuted the belief that celestial bodies are

Descartes claims to prove the existence of god based on his vivid and clear perception that

In his Meditations on First Philosophy, Descartes

Descartes claimed to know with complete certainty that he was a

René Descartes (1596-1650) set out to find complete certainty in