Complete Test Bank Descartes Doubt And Certainty Chapter 9

Chapter 9: Descartes: Doubt and Certainty

Test Bank

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 09 Question 01

1) Descartes sets out to examine his opinions in order to __________.

a. better understand his nature

b. achieve intellectual purity

c. establish a firm and permanent structure for the sciences

d. better understand God

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 09 Question 02

2) Descartes seeks to give all knowledge a foundation as firm as that of __________.

a. empirical science

b. mathematics

c. revealed religion

d. morality

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 09 Question 03

3) Descartes says that, for all he knows, he may be __________.

a. dreaming

b. a god

c. infallible

d. perfect

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 09 Question 04

4) Descartes declares that an evil demon __________.

a. undoubtedly exists

b. could not possibly exist

c. could possibly be deceiving him

d. must exist if God exists

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 09 Question 05

5) Descartes argues against trusting the senses on the grounds that __________.

a. they never directly deceive him

b. they sometimes deceive him

c. God allows sensory deception

d. sense perception is indubitable

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 09 Question 06

6) Descartes declares that he is a __________.

a. body

b. dream

c. thing that thinks

d. thing that cannot exist

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 09 Question 07

7) Descartes seeks __________ as the foundation of knowledge.

a. divine revelation

b. probability

c. certainty

d. sense experience

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 09 Question 08

8) Descartes supposes that everything he sees is __________.

a. true

b. false

c. part of him

d. undeniable

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 09 Question 09

9) Epistemology is the philosophical study of __________.

a. reality

b. knowledge

c. divinity

d. morality

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 09 Question 10

10) Propositional knowledge consists in __________.

a. knowing how to do something

b. knowing that something is the case

c. knowing what something feels like

d. knowing why something is good

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 09 Question 11

11) In order to know a proposition, you must believe, it must be __________, and you must be __________ in believing it.

a. objective; certain

b. true; justified

c. necessary; confident

d. indubitable; correct

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 09 Question 12

12) Skepticism is the view that we lack __________.

a. knowledge in some fundamental way

b. limited knowledge

c. a connection between knowledge and reality

d. a connection between knowledge and ethics

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 09 Question 13

13) A priori knowledge is knowledge gained __________.

a. from divine revelation

b. from sense experience

c. independently of or before sense experience

d. from tradition

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 09 Question 14

14) Knowledge that depends entirely on sense experience is called __________ knowledge.

a. a posteriori

b. synthetic

c. a priori

d. analytic

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 09 Question 15

15) Those who believe that through unaided reason we can come to know what the world is like are called __________.

a. empiricists

b. skeptics

c. rationalists

d. dogmatists

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 09 Question 16

16) __________ is the view that our knowledge of the empirical world comes solely through sense experience.

a. Rationalism

b. Empiricism

c. Dogmatism

d. Skepticism

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 09 Question 17

17) According to Descartes, if __________ is his standard, he cannot tell the difference between __________.

a. sensation; dreaming and waking

b. reason; dreaming and waking

c. revelation; prayer and argument

d. tradition; prayer and argument

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 09 Question 18

18) Descartes supposes that he is dreaming because he cannot distinguish __________.

a. the good from the bad

b. the real from the unreal

c. the true from the false

d. dreaming from waking

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 09 Question 19

19) Descartes initially rejects the idea that all his sense-based beliefs could be false because __________.

a. they are perceptions

b. we are used to using them to navigate through life

c. his immediate sensations seem to be obviously reliable

d. God wouldn’t deceive him about his senses

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 09 Question 20

20) Descartes deepens his doubts at the end of Meditation I by supposing he is being deceived by __________.

a. the Church

b. an evil genius

c. God

d. sensation

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 09 Question 21

21) After using the dream argument to cast doubt on his knowledge of material reality, Descartes extends his skepticism to include knowledge of __________.

a. morality

b. God’s existence

c. Platonic Forms

d. mathematics

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 09 Question 22

22) At the beginning of Meditation II, Descartes arrives at the certainty of __________.

a. the evil genius

b. God’s existence

c. his existence as a thinking thing

d. his sense perception

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 09 Question 23

23) Descartes claims to have discovered a first principle for acquiring knowledge according to which all things __________.

a. known to be true and good are knowable

b. clearly and distinctly perceived are true

c. attributable to divine providence are true

d. hidden from the evil genius are knowable

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 09 Question 24

24) Descartes argues that God __________.

a. is not a deceiver

b. is a deceiver

c. is subject to the evil genius’s machinations

d. dispenses knowledge

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 09 Question 25

25) Descartes argues that God __________.

a. can be a deceiver because he can do what he wants

b. cannot be a deceiver because he is perfect

c. cannot be subject to the evil genius’s machinations, because he is superior to the evil genius

d. dispenses knowledge, and as such is responsible for Descartes’s certainty

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 09 Question 26

26) Descartes argues that he is capable of knowledge because __________.

a. God is not subject to the evil genius’s machinations

b. the evil genius cannot prevent him from knowing that things like wax exist

c. God would not allow him to be deceived if he correctly applies his God-given abilities

d. the certainty of the “I think” means he can know objects are real

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 09 Question 27

27) Descartes knows the wax is still wax, despite its changes, because __________.

a. of rational intuition

b. he believes it is the case

c. the evil genius can’t deceive him about this

d. of sense perception

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 09 Question 28

28) Descartes reasons that if we rely solely on __________, then we have to conclude that the wax does not remain the same.

a. rational intuition

b. God

c. the evil genius

d. sense perception

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 09 Question 29

29) Descartes asserts, “I am, I exist, is necessarily true __________.”

a. so long as God does not deceive me

b. each time that I am not being deceived by the evil genius

c. each time that I pronounce it, or that I mentally conceive it

d. each time that God reminds me

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 09 Question 30

30) Descartes asserts that the perception of the wax is “neither an act of __________.”

a. mind but divine revelation

b. mind but vision and touch

c. vision nor of touch . . . but only of imagination

d. vision nor of touch, nor of imagination . . . but only an intuition of the mind

Type: true-false

Title: Chapter 09 Question 31

31) Descartes says there are very few ways that we can tell whether we are dreaming.

a. True

b. False

Type: true-false

Title: Chapter 09 Question 32

32) Descartes says that because it is possible that an evil genius is deceiving him, he can never be sure of anything, including his own existence.

a. True

b. False

Type: true-false

Title: Chapter 09 Question 33

33) According to Descartes, only beliefs that are certain can count as knowledge.

a. True

b. False

Type: true-false

Title: Chapter 09 Question 34

34) Descartes concludes that there is no way out of his deep skepticism.

a. True

b. False

Type: true-false

Title: Chapter 09 Question 35

35) Descartes declares that he knows with high probability that he is.

a. True

b. False

Type: true-false

Title: Chapter 09 Question 36

36) Descartes goes through his opinions individually in order to determine which ones are not completely certain.

a. True

b. False

Type: true-false

Title: Chapter 09 Question 37

37) For Descartes, the statement “I am, I exist” is necessarily true every time he utters it.

a. True

b. False

Type: true-false

Title: Chapter 09 Question 38

38) Descartes establishes with certainty that corporeal things exist and that he has a body.

a. True

b. False

Type: true-false

Title: Chapter 09 Question 39

39) In order to establish a firm foundation for knowledge, Descartes sets out to reject all and only his false opinions.

a. True

b. False

Type: true-false

Title: Chapter 09 Question 40

40) Descartes believes that anything conceivable is logically possible.

a. True

b. False

Type: true-false

Title: Chapter 09 Question 41

41) Descartes believes that his consciousness must reside in the mind of God.

a. True

b. False

Type: true-false

Title: Chapter 09 Question 42

42) Descartes cannot find a principle of knowledge.

a. True

b. False

Type: true-false

Title: Chapter 09 Question 43

43) Descartes asserts that God would not deceive him because God is perfect.

a. True

b. False

Type: true-false

Title: Chapter 09 Question 44

44) Descartes claims that a misuse of his intellect results in false judgments.

a. True

b. False

Type: true-false

Title: Chapter 09 Question 45

45) Descartes rejects the existence of innate ideas.

a. True

b. False

Type: true-false

Title: Chapter 09 Question 46

46) Although Descartes is able to cast doubt on his knowledge of material reality, he finds the abstract propositions of mathematics impossible to doubt.

a. True

b. False

Type: true-false

Title: Chapter 09 Question 47

47) Descartes’s first principle of knowledge is about the clarity and distinctness of his ideas.

a. True

b. False

Type: true-false

Title: Chapter 09 Question 48

48) Descartes thinks that, since God could be deceiving him, God is not all good.

a. True

b. False

Type: true-false

Title: Chapter 09 Question 49

49) Descartes concludes that he cannot know whether the same wax remains throughout its changes.

a. True

b. False

Type: true-false

Title: Chapter 09 Question 50

50) According to Descartes, material bodies are ultimately known by an intuition of the mind rather than by the senses.

a. True

b. False