Prompts:
1. Explain what Descartes' project of radical doubt is. Why is he doing it? What "tools" or concepts does he use to accomplish this task?
2. What does Descartes claim we have certain knowledge of even if we are deceived by an evil genius? Why is this knowledge more certain than knowledge from the senses? Why is it more certain than knowledge about the formal nature of the material world?
3. In Meditation II, Descartes discusses what he can know of a piece of wax. Summarize his position. Then explain what David Hume would claim we can know of that same piece of wax. How do their accounts differ?
4. Compare and contrast Descartes' account of the cogito (the "thinking substance" in the Meditations) to Hume's account of the idea of self. Explain the main epistemic difference between their accounts.