First Meditation from Descartes′ Meditations

Read the First Meditation from Descartes′ Meditations on First Philosophy and respond to the following questions. Paste your answers in the submission box, or enclose it in an attachment. 1) Why did Descartes set out to overthrow all his beliefs? 2) Why did Descartes believe it was not possible for him to examine all his beliefs one by one? Which alternative strategy did he suggest? 3) Which way of knowing has Descartes accepted as supremely true so far? 4) Did Descartes conclude that we should or that we should not trust our senses? 5) Did Descartes believe we have reliable signs to distinguish state of being awake from the state of being asleep? 6) According to Descartes, what elements of reality are our dreams made of? 7) Did Descartes eventually conclude that dreams can make up reality which would be completely different from our conscious experience? 8) Which elements of reality are the most universal? 9) Why did Descartes think arithmetic and geometry might be more certain and indubitable than other sciences, like physics, astronomy, and medicine? 10) Did Descartes believe we could be deceived in our judgements concerning mathematics? 11) Could God, who is all-good and all-powerful, allow us to be deceived in our judgements about reality? 12) What reason did Descartes have to believe that human beings are not perfect? What reason did he have to believe that God might not be perfect? 13)Which strategy did Descartes believe we should use in order to avoid any false judgements in the future? 14) Why did Descartes believe it would be useful to suppose that all our previous beliefs were false and imaginary? 15) Did Descartes believe in the existence of an evil demon? 16) Did Descartes, by the end of the 1. Meditation, conclude that we did not have a body? 17)Why did Descartes believe it was difficult for us to withhold assent from what we believe in our ordinary life?