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Students Zone / Questions / Chapter 7: Scepticism

1. How can you tell that you are not at this moment dreaming?

2. Is it sensible to suppose that we might be mistaken about absolutely everything?

3. Is it true that if our dreams were as continuous and coherent as our experiences of waking life the distinction between dreaming and waking life would disappear?

4. How would you set about convincing a sceptic that there are such things as cows?

5. Does our experience of illusions throw doubt upon our knowledge of the external world?

6. How can you be sure that you are not dreaming you are reading this question?

7. Explain Descartes’ use of God in his search for certainty. What objections do you think can be raised against Descartes’ use of God in this way?

8. Explain Donald Davidson’s argument that we must have a lot of true beliefs about things before we can have false ones. Do you believe this is true?

9. ‘I do not observe that any other thing belongs necessarily to my nature or essence except that I am a thinking thing, I rightly conclude that my essence consists in this alone, that I am a thinking thing, or a substance whose whole essence or nature consists in thinking.’ (Meditation VI).

Give an account of Descartes’ reasons for arguing that he is nothing more than a thinking thing. How convincing is this argument?

10. Descartes concludes from his ‘cogito’ argument that he has indubitable knowledge of his own existence. Describe the argument and critically examine the conclusions he draws from this.