What is Descartes' project? What does he mean by certainty? What grounds does he offer for doubting what he once held as true? What role does skepticism play in his project?

What does Descartes claim to know with certainty and why? What kind of thing is he? Why does he think he has a mind or soul? What is the wax example designed to show? How does Descartes understand material substance?

Meditation 3

What is the general rule that Descartes thinks will tell him when he can be certain of something? What doubt remains about the force of this rule? How does Descartes try to prove that God exists? What's the difference between objective and formal reality?

Why might one think that Descartes has a problem accounting for error in judgment? How does Descartes use the notions of the will and the intellect to explain the source of error?

Meditation 5

What other arguments are offered for God's existence?

Meditation 6

Why should we believe that material things exist? What is the relationship between the mind and the body?

What does Spinoza mean by a "substance"? How does his conception compare with Descartes'? What does Spinoza think God is? What proof does he have that God exists? Why does he think there is only one substance?

Ethics I, p17-end of Ethics I

Does everything that happens have to happen in just the way it did? Is there any room for free will in Spinoza's thinking?

What are attributes and modes on Spinoza's view? What is a "finite thing?" How are finite things related to God?

Ethics II, p23 to end

What are mind and body on Spinoza's view and how are they related? How does Spinoza's view compare with Descartes'? What has Spinoza got to say about knowledge and ignorance?

Why does Locke think there is no innate knowledge? What are ideas and where do they come from? How are simple ideas distinguished from complex ideas? How are primary qualities distinguished from secondary qualities?

Essay, Book II, xxi

What is an idea of power? What is the difference between having a free will and being a free agent?

How do ideas of particular substances come about? What does Locke say about substance in general? What does Locke mean when he says that consciousness makes personal identity?

Essay, Book III, iii-vi

How are real essences distinguished from nominal essences? What is it for words in a language to have meaning?

What does Locke think knowledge is? What can be known and how can we know it? How does Locke handle Descartes' skeptical doubts?

M 1-6 and 31-32; DM 6 and 8

What basic principles does Leibniz use? How reasonable are these principles as starting points for Leibniz?

What does Leibniz mean by "substance?" What are monads and how does Leibniz argue that there must be such things? How does Leibniz’s definition of substance compare with Descartes’ and Spinoza’s? How does it compare with Locke’s?

M 7-28,49-52, 56-62; DM 8-9, 13-15

What is it for a monad to "express the whole universe?" How does Leibniz account for the apparent interaction among things?

What view does Leibniz hold about knowledge? Does Leibniz think we have innate ideas? How do Locke and Leibniz differ on this issue?

DM 13, 30-31

Do we have free will on Leibniz's view? What difficulties arise? What is meant by the phrase "inclines without necessitating?"

M 17-21, 61-84; DM 18-22, 33-35

What does Leibniz say against the idea that thinking can be understood mechanically? How does Leibniz's understanding of mind and body (and the relationship between them) compare with Descartes'? What are entelechies and what have they to do with living beings?

How does Leibniz attempt to prove that God exists? How is his argument similar to those Descartes and Spinoza offer?

M 53-56; DM 1-7

Why does Leibniz say we live in the best of all possible worlds? What consequences does this view have for the possibility of human free will? For the free will of God?

What are the two sorts of philosophy Hume discusses and how does he decide to pursue philosophy? What distinctions does Hume make among our ideas? What arguments does he offer for the conclusion that all ideas are but copies of impressions? What problem does the missing shade of blue present? In what ways does the mind connect ideas? How is Hume’s view of the mind similar to Locke’s?

Enquiry, Sections IV—V

What are the two kinds of objects of human reason? Upon what are our reasonings concerning matters of facts based? What reasons are there to be skeptical about our reasonings concerning matters of fact? What is Hume's "skeptical solution of these doubts?" How is Hume’s response to skepticism different from Descartes’?

What does Hume have to say about chance and probability? What does Hume say about the idea of a necessary connection? What do causal relationships come to? What are Hume's two definitions of "cause?"

Treatise, Book II

Could we have free will (liberty) on Hume’s view? Why do we think we have free will? How does Hume understand the relationship between reason and emotion? How does his view compare with Spinoza’s and Descartes’?

Why does Hume think that moral distinctions are not derived from reason? What is the source of our moral distinctions?

Critique, Preface and Introduction (Cahn 878—900)

What problem of Hume's most concerned Kant? What is Kant's distinction between analytic and synthetic judgments? between a posteriori and a priori cognition? What is the primary problem that Kant wants to address? How does Hume influence Kant?

Why does Kant think that mathematical truths are synthetic and a priori? What does Kant mean by something's being "given in intuition?" What does Kant say about Geometry? What role do space and time play in his theory of our knowledge of Mathematics and Geometry? How are Kant’s views of space and time different from those of Spinoza or Leibniz? How does an intuition differ from a pure intuition? What is a form of sensibility? What does Kant call "appearances?" What does he say about "things in themselves?"

Critique, Transcendental Logic (Cahn 914—931)

How are pure concepts distinguished from empirical concepts? What are the pure concepts of the understanding and how does Kant derive them? What role do the pure categories or concepts of the understanding play in our knowing about nature? How does Kant’s view of knowledge compare with Hume’s or Locke’s?

What role does reason play in Kant’s understanding of morals? How are categorical imperatives different from hypothetical imperatives? What are the (versions of) categorical imperatives? What is the (unconditionally) good will? Does Kant think we have a free will?