Part one of term paper
How can we know if we are a brain in a vat? Can we be sure that we are not the playthings of evil demons? These questions have been discussed by many philosophers in the past and still we do not have a proof that we are not some demon’s plaything. Yet, at least two prominent philosophers, René Descartes and John Locke believed there are wa ...

Part two of term paper
... he could at least be certain that he had thoughts, and therefore existed as a thinking being. If an individual has an idea, then that individual would understand it and assent to its content. If, as Descartes claimed, I am born with the idea of God, who embedded that idea in me at my creation, then my understanding of what God is should conform to that idea. Thus he wrote, the idea must be a "clear and distinct" perception of the mind. Nothing could make him doubt it. Furthermore, in Disco ...