PHL.103 Study Guide for Quotation Test 3 Edmonds 1
For this Quotation Test, I will choose between 8 and 10 of the following quotes. You need to tell me
three things to earn the full 5 points for each quote: the author (1 point), the text the quote is taken
from (1 point), and a brief explanation of the philosophical significance and context of the quote (3
points). See your syllabus for more details regarding assessment.
1. “At last I will apply myself earnestly and unreservedly to this general demolition of my opinions”
(Descartes, Meditations on the First Philosophy, First Meditation, 13).
2. “Let us assume then, for the sake of argument, that we are dreaming and that such particulars as
these are not true: that we are opening our eyes, moving our head, and extending our hands”
(Descartes, Meditations on the First Philosophy, First Meditation, 14).
3. “Accordingly, I will not suppose a supremely good God, the source of truth, but rather an evil genius,
supremely powerful and clever, who has directed his entire effort at deceiving me” (Descartes,
Meditations on the First Philosophy, First Meditation, 16).
4. “Thus, after everything has been most carefully weighed, it must finally be established that this
pronouncement “I am, I exist” is necessarily true every time I utter it or conceive it in my mind”
(Descartes, Meditations on the First Philosophy, Second Meditation, 18).
5. “But I need to realize that the perception of the wax is neither a seeing, nor a touching, nor an
imagining. Nor has it ever been, even though it previously seemed so; rather it is an inspection on
the part of the mind alone” (Descartes, Meditations on the First Philosophy, Second Meditation, 22).
6. “Be a philosopher; but, amidst all your philosophy, be still a man” (Hume, An Enquiry Concerning
Human Understanding, 6).
7. “That the sun will not rise tomorrow is no less intelligible a proposition, and implies no more
contradiction than the affirmation, that it will rise” (Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human
Understanding, 18).
8. “Nothing in the world—or out of it!—can possibly be conceived that could be called ‘good’ without
qualification except a GOOD WILL” (Kant, Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals, 5).
9. “That is, I ought never to act in such a way that I couldn’t also will that the maxim on which I act
should be a universal law” (Kant, Foundations of the Metaphysics of Morals, 11).
10. “All imperatives command either hypothetically or categorically” (Kant, Foundations of the
Metaphysics of Morals, 19).
11. “Act in such a way as to treat humanity, whether in your own person or in that of anyone else,
always as an end and never merely as a means” (Kant, Foundations of the Metaphysics of Morals,
29).
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