Question 1:
Bouwsma claims that (absolutely) thick illusions of flowers, people, diamonds…are impossible. (a) What does Bouwsma mean by “illusion”? (b) The scope of Bouwsma’s claim is not immediately clear. Holograms of flowers and mirages of water on a desert highway aren’t material in quite the way paper flowers are. Is Bouwsma’s claim plausible if we take immaterial illusions like holograms and mirages into account? (c) What about hallucinations of elephants or dream castles? (d) What kinds of skeptical arguments are undermined by Bouwsma’s claims?
referring to the reading done in Descartes' evil genius written by Bouwsma. Ive uploaded the file with a web link in the document.
Question 2:
In Objections and Replies, Descartes writes, “you are sometimes mistaken about something that you accept as certain.” [p. 138] If we assume that “accept something as certain” means “accept that the frequency-type probability of something is very high”, e.g., “accept wildfires as certain” means “accept that the frequency-type probability of wildfires is very high”, then Descartes’ remark suggests the following argument:
(1) You are sometimes mistaken about things you accept as certain.
(2) If you are sometimes mistaken about things you accept as certain, then you can never be certain--even of things that you accept as certain
(3) So, you can never be certain even of things that you accept as certain
(a) Explain the various ways that the word “certain” is used in this argument. (b) Critically evaluate the argument.
Third reading - Bouwsma, “Descartes’ Evil Genius”
https://www.jstor.org/stable/2181388?seq=11#metadata_info_tab_contents