Due 10/25

A. Long Essay: (100 points) (1250 word limit) Do each section separately and label it.

Part I. What is the Cartesian Circle? Include both the broad and the narrow definition. Why is this problem important for Modern Philosophy?

Part II:  What solutions would (a) Descartes; (b) Leibniz; (c) Spinoza present to this problem?

Part III. Discuss whose answer you find most convincing. You should try to identify the crucial issue between the three thinkers (the cause of their disagreement on this question.) Defend the answer you most agree with by responding to the objections that at least one of the other two thinkers would make.

B. Short Essays (Choose One from Each Section (1 and 2) (50 Points each) (300 word limit each) you should try to identify one key idea or theme and organize your explanation around it.

Section 1: (Choose one)

   a. Explain Spinoza’s theory of the emotions and how it leads to his view of happiness.

  b. How did Descartes show that the method of the scientific revolution implies that all we can know is the contents of our own mind (The Mind’s Eye Model of Perception)? What did he discover that this implied about how we know our own mind?

  c. What is causation for Leibniz? What would be his argument against the possibility of mechanical causation? How did this influence his view of simple substances?

Section 2: (Choose one)

   a. Explain how the differences in the metaphysical views of Spinoza, Leibniz, and Descartes can be seen as a disagreement about what a substance is.

  b. How do Descartes, Leibniz and Spinoza each solve the Mind-Body Problem (the problem of how mind and body interact)?

  c. Describe how two of these thinkers (Descartes, Spinoza, and Leibniz) would each explain the nature of true ideas, how we arrive at them, and how they are different from false ideas or error.

C. Extra Credit       (One paragraph) Our knowledge of our self is the only thing that is certain and indubitable. We never really know ourselves completely. Explain how Descartes, Leibniz, and Spinoza each endorse both of these apparently contradictory statements. Specifying the argument or aspect of their thought that supports each statement is adequate (250 words).