Instructions

Due, as an attachment, via the “Assignments” tool on Canvas, by 11:55pm on Tuesday, February 6.

Please choose one of these arguments from Descartes’s First or Second Meditations and, in approximately 2–3 pages (double spaced), do the following: (1) brieﬂy explain in your own words what the argument is supposed to prove and how (focus only on the argument you have chosen; you should not summarize the rest of the text); (2) bring up an apparently serious objection to the argument; (3) explain how Descartes would respond to the objection.

Needless to say, this should be your own original work. You probably should not need to use external sources for this assignment, but, if you do, you must cite them. If you have any questions about what plagiarism is or how to avoid it, you can ask me, or consult the resources listed on the Library website.[1]https://guides.library.ucsc.edu/c.php?g=1349850&p=9960819. For possible consequences of plagiarism, see the Academic Misconduct Policy.[2]https://ue.ucsc.edu/academic_misconduct.

AI policy: I encourage the use of AI assistance with proper caution (i.e., keeping in mind that current AI is often wrong). You may use AI assistance basically in any way that would not constitute cheating if you used a human for the same thing. Similarly, you should cite the AI in cases where you would cite a human. If in doubt, feel free to ask me for clariﬁcation.

Note that this is not a full scale paper — you need not, and should not, write an introduction and conclusion, summarize other parts of the Meditations, etc. Just please focus on doing (1)–(3) above.

Also note: to do this well you need to come up with an objection that is serious and think of a good way for Descartes to respond to it. The worse you can make things look for Descartes — as long as you can still get him out of it in the end! — the better your paper.

Objections based on modern technology (or imaginary future technology) are discouraged. If you think of such an objection, see if you can come up with a similar one that involves only things Descartes himself knew about or imagined. (In most cases that should be possible. For example, you could use a powerful evil demon.)

Please write the number of the argument you have chosen at the beginning of your paper (you don’t need to quote it).

You can ﬁnd answers to some commonly asked questions about my assignments and grading in my FAQ.

This document, and all other instructor-generated material in this course, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.