• What do you guys think about Desartes' description of good sense (page 1 paragraph 1)?—RA

• Do you think our early falling into "certain tracks" have as great of an influence on everyone as it did on descartes on page 2 or do you think you can still develop a great mind regardless of negative influences early in life?—LK

• On p. 4, Descartes basically says that customs from different countries than us are considered to be "ridiculous and irrational". Do you believe the same?—RS

• P. 6 paragraph 2. Do you think it is better to learn through practicality or through knowledgeable books about more hypothetical questions and possibilities?—KW

• Is Descartes guilty of that which he condemned on page 6? '...a man of letters in his study, regarding speculative matters that are of no practical moment, and followed by no consequences to himself, farther, perhaps, than that they foster his vanity the better the more remote they are from common sense; requiring, as they must in this case, the exercise of greater ingenuity and art to render them probable.' Later, on page 7, part II:'I remained the wole day in seclusion, with full opportunity to occupy my attention with my own thoughts.'—KM

• Descartes infers that works of collaboration are often less magnificent than those envisioned by a single mind. (Part 2 page 7) Could this be blamed on a lack of communication? Wouldn't the best cities be built by a close knit team sharing the same vision?—JP

• In part 2, pg.8, Descartes states that sciences in books were made of the opinions of many individuals. Therefore, they were not as accurate as an unprejudiced judgement of a man of good sense. Sciences have always been developing thanks to the contribution of many different outstanding individuals, since no one is able to figure everything in nature out by himself. Was he wrong when he, in my opinion, overemphasized the importance of one individual and disregarded that of a community.—KT

• On page 12 at the bottom of the paragraph, do you think his statement on only having a few laws to abide by would be effective?—ER

• What did Descartes mean when he stated, "I believed that the four following would prove perfectly sufficient for me, provided I took the firm and unwavering resolution never in a single instance to fail in observing them" (p.12)?—SC

• On p.12 Descartes explains that he can anything to be true if he is not clearly certain that it is true. How can we be clearly certain of anything?—SM

• My question comes from the first "law" that Descartes puts forth (bottom of page 12). He seems, to me, to be advocating that everything in life should be approached with skepticism. Do you feel as though this is appropriate or are there instances in which we should accept information that is presented to us on faith alone? Are there potential harms to questioning everything?—CD