Overview
General Essay Information: This is a 500-word minimum, typed, single spaced essay. Please write your responses in essay format using paragraph breaks as necessary. The bulk of your response should be spent answering the question. Introductory and concluding remarks are secondary.
SOURCES: DESCARTES meditations 1-6. Nagels free will (attached pdf)
Font: whatever your computer defaults to (for Microsoft Word, it is Calibri at 11point. Apple Pages and Google Docs will probably have different default fonts. Just use what they are automatically set to write with). Heading on top left of first page: Name, word count, professor name, due date. here
Citations: Please put the author's last name and page number in parentheses--for example, if I was talking about page 32 from the Apology reading, I would end the sentence with (Plato 32).--at the end of any sentences that are "copy and pasted" or were "modified from something you read" to make your point. Special note for citing lecture material: you do not need to cite your teacher's lecture comments, just the pages he refers to when making the comments.
Title: Descartes and Nagel on Free Will
Okay, time for the actual essay prompt. In essay format, please answer the two questions below:
- In the Meditations on First Philosophy, Descartes claims that humans are responsible for error based on the interaction between free will and the understanding. Please thoroughly explain Descartes’ position on this interaction.
- Using the Nagel essay, how might somebody reject Descartes’ claim that somebody is responsible for error?