Short Quiz Paper assignment # 4

Tell someone to help you on a puzzle that you encountered in your philosophy class: Can we be sure of anything. Explain to them what motivated Descartes to have the universal doubt, and how his questions made you feel uneasy. Ask your interviewee: “Can you help me to find something, anything, that I can be absolutely certain about?” (This is a Socratic method – approach others as a humble learner. Do not approach others with the attitude like “let me teach you something!”) You may continue the conversation by using Descartes’ dreaming argument and the evil demon argument: “But what if someone say, …?”

Write a short report and reflection on what you did – Make a very brief summary of the conversation (do not turn in a whole recorded script of the conversation), and then reflect your experience: What does the conversation tell you?

The paper should demonstrate (1) your accurate and deep understanding of Descartes’ view, (2) your ability to articulate his view, (3) the depth of your reflection, and (4) your ability to write well, -- in philosophy, this means mainly the clarity of your presentation – the sentences and the structure of the paper should be clear, not confusing, to the point, not irrelevant, precise, and not redundant.

Some advices:

Keep in mind that the success of your paper is partly dependent on yourself, so you need to do some preparation (reading, thinking, planning) before you talk to others, and partly dependent on the person you discuss the issue with – the better the person can raise objections to you, the more you are able to demonstrate your understanding and reasoning abilities.

You may talk to more than one person, or talk to the same person several times.

You may decide to tape record your conversation, or, at least, make some notes during the conversation. But if you tape record it, please get the other person’s permission.

In case you like to do some library research to “arm” yourself super strong and prepare for the possible strong “retaliations,” the key phrase to search for is “skepticism” (the online data base of the Philosopher’s Index will help you to locate tons of materials on the subject).

Avoid plagiarism: When you cite someone or paraphrase someone, make it clear that you are citing or paraphrasing, and provide full bibliographical information of the source, either in footnotes or endnotes or in a list of bibliography.

Purpose of this assignment: Get some first hand experience of philosophizing, and enhance your understanding of Descartes’ view.

Length of the paper: 1 page, type-written.

Due date: Tue. April 15