"Bad Dreams, Evil Demons, and the Experience Machine: Philosophy and The Matrix" Self-Quiz

. Who is Rene Descartes?

A philosopher who argued that the brain in a vat inspired skepticism is incoherent

A philosopher who created the experience machine thought experiment

A philosopher who considered skeptical scenarios involving dreams and evil demons

A philosopher who argued that we value more than what we can be conscious of

. Why might the phenomenon of dreaming lead us to a sort of skepticism?

It doesnt lead us to skepticism

Because sometimes dreams are better than reality

Because we can successfully refer to things in our dreams

Because there is no principled way to tell the difference between a dream and real life

. What scenario does Descartes imagine that is even more nefarious than dream skepticism?

That we are in an experience machine

That an evil demon is deceiving us

That we are a brain in a vat

None of the above

. For Descartes, why do we necessarily exist, despite the possibility that were being deceived by an evil demon?

Because it is wildly implausible that were being deceived by an evil demon

Because even if we doubt our existence, we must exist to doubt it

Because we cannot be deceived about mathematical truths

None of the above

. What is Nozick getting at with his experience machine thought experiment?

That we only value the experience of pleasure

That we value being a certain person, not the experience of being that type of person

That we value contact with reality

both (b) and (c)

. Descartes argues that God exists because we have an idea of God and couldnt have created it ourselves.

TRUE

FALSE

. According to Descartes, it isnt possible that we are brains in a vat, and so we should be skeptical about our experience.

TRUE

FALSE

. Hilary Putnam was a famous dream skeptic.

TRUE

FALSE

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