Deck 9: The Rationalist: René Descartes

Question 1

Descartes was a rationalist.

Answer 1

True

Question 2

In Descartes time, the distinction between science and philosophy was clear.

Answer 2

False

Question 3

Princess Elizabeth wrote Discourse on Method .

Answer 3

False

Question 4

Descartes discovered that Aristotle s writings on nature contained errors.

Question 5

Descartes exalted reason over faith.

Question 6

Queene Christiana of Sweden wrote Discourse on Method .

Question 7

Rene Descartes was the first philosopher to study the process of thinking.

Question 8

Descartes wrote in secretive, opaque language.

Question 9

The coherence theory of truth is in opposition to the correspondence theory of truth.

Question 10

Sufism is a mystical form of Christianity.

Question 11

al-Ghazali transcended reason.

Question 12

al-Ghazali embraced sufism.

Question 13

Descartes died when he was 53.

Question 14

Descartes first wrote Rules for the Direction of the Mind .

Question 15

Descartes is known as the father of modern philosophy.

Question 16

Descartes was a soldier.

Question 17

Descartes liked to sleep in.

Question 18

Rationalism holds intuition to be the primary source of knowledge.

Question 19

Innate ideas are also known as a priori ideas.

Question 20

Descartes believed that there was need of a method for finding truth.

Question 21

Why could Descartes not appeal to Aquinas arguments for the existence of God?

A) He believed they were false
B) Descartes lived before Aquinas
C) They rested on claims about the external world
D) They were Aristotelian in nature

Question 22

According to Crane Brinton, the Age of Reason began in 1657.

Question 23

Descartes failed to apply his standard of truth to itself.

Question 24

Descartes is associated with the phrase I think, therefore I am .

Question 25

Who developed an argument prior to Descartes that was similar to the Cogito argument?

A) Aristotle
B) Augustine
C) Lao-tzu
D) Buddha

Question 26

Descartes believed that everything could be doubted.

Question 27

Descartes was

A) a lapsed Catholic
B) a skeptic
C) a devout Catholic
D) a Protestant

Question 28

Logos means

A) Logic
B) Study of
C) Soul
D) God

Question 29

Who developed the purest form of ontological argument?

A) Aquinas
B) Augustine
C) Aristotle
D) Anselm

Question 30

An attempt to prove the existence of God by referring to the meaning of the word God is

A) an ontological argument
B) a fallacious argument
C) a cosmological argument
D) a circular argument

Question 31

Descartes wrote in everyday French.

Question 32

Miguel de Unamuno held that consciousness was a disease.

Question 33

Descartes rejected methodic doubt.

Question 34

What did Descartes hope to use to establish certainty?

A) God
B) Religion
C) Skepticism
D) Empiricism

Question 35

Descartes called common sense rare .

Question 36

A posteriori knowledge is empirical knowledge.

Question 37

All triangles have 180 degrees is an example of a priori knowledge.

Question 38

Thomas Hobbes argued that everything was composed of

A) matter alone
B) energy alone
C) matter and soul
D) matter and energy

Question 39

The belief that everything is composed of matter is not called

A) materialism
B) mechanism
C) behaviorism
D) merchantilism

Question 40

For Descartes, God is

A) Flawed
B) Illusory
C) Infinite perfection
D) Finite love

Question 41

Do you believe that people have innate ideas? Would everyone have to have them for Descartes arguments to be sound? Explain your answer.

Question 42

Do you have any reason to believe that you are not being systematically deceived by an evil genius, right at this moment? Does it matter whether you are being deceived or not? Explain your answer.

Question 43

What was Descartes rationalism inspired by?

A) a vision and three dreams
B) a vision and Aristotle
C) Aquinas and three dreams
D) Aristotle and three dreams

Question 44

When did Queen Christina of Sweden want Descartes to tutor her?

A) At 5am
B) At 7am
C) At 5pm
D) At 7pm

Question 45

Descartes held that humans are a mixture of

A) mind and body
B) substance and soul
C) love and hate
D) desire and mind

Question 46

What did Descartes appeal to as the ultimate standard to be used in accepting or rejecting ideas?

A) God
B) Common sense
C) Truth
D) Clear and distinct knowing

Question 47

What did Descartes think was the crucial link between mind and body?

A) The brain
B) The heart
C) The ligaments
D) The pineal gland

Question 48

Outline Descartes ontological argument for the existence of God. Do you believe that it succeeds in proving that God exists, or not? Why do you believe as you do?

Question 49

Who wrote The Concept of Mind ?

A) Russell
B) Descartes
C) Ryle
D) Hobbes

Question 50

How might Descartes appeal to clear and distinct ideas be subject to criticism? Could Descartes respond to this criticism by distinguishing between a first-person approach to his arguments (i.e., where they are aimed only at the person following them) and a third-person approach to them (i.e., where they are intended to be fully accessible to others)? What might this response look like? Would it be satisfactory?

Question 51

Cogito, ergo sum is Latin for

A) I think, therefore I think
B) I think, therefore I am
C) I think, therefore I am not
D) I think, this makes me exist

Question 52

Who called Descartes dualism the official doctrine ?

A) Russell
B) Hobbes
C) Descartes
D) Ryle

Question 53

How many principles were in Descartes Rules ?

A) 12
B) 18
C) 21
D) 35

Question 54

Descartes attacked earlier philosophy on the grounds that it did not demand

A) rational comprehension from the individual intellect
B) belief in God
C) intellectual courage against society s mores
D) knowledge of French

Question 55

The belief that everything consists of only one substance is

A) atheism
B) dualism
C) monism
D) pragmatism

Question 56

What, according to Descartes, is most evenly distributed in the world?

A) Health
B) Wisdom
C) Divine grace
D) Common sense

Question 57

Susan Bordo is

A) a feminist philosopher of culture
B) a feminist advocate of Hobbes
C) a disciple of Descartes
D) a prominent Hobbesian scholar

Question 58

What is the only thing that can give meaning to experience, according to rationalists?

A) God
B) Empirical evidence
C) Reason
D) Religion

Question 59

What are Descartes arguments for Cartesian dualism? Do you find them persuasive? If you do not, do you endorse monism, or not? Explain your answer.

Question 60

When did Desartes have a revelation?

A) 1615
B) 1619
C) 1625
D) 1629

Question 61

What advantages might Descartes dualist view have for someone who believes that humans have free will?

Question 62

What method do you use for finding truth? How is this similar to, or different from, the rules that Descartes offered for finding truth?

Question 63

Outline the coherence theory of truth. Do you believe that this is a correct view of what truth is, or not? Explain your answer.