Are you perchance related to Descartes?
If yes, congratulations, Descartes is a real genius!
But I am by no way related to him....
By the way if you are a " prof" you certainly had read Whitehead, or Husserl that settle that problem for good before me, and Goethe, reader of Spinoza, in a more profound way before them...I am, perchance, related to Goethe...For teo_audio I am afraid that you will be in the obligation to ask him...And my "strawman sense" also is tingling by the way....
If you cannot understand Husserl or Whitehead, try Charles Sanders Peirce, who also settle the problem perhaps not for good but in his own particular way ( he reformulate it more than he settle it)....But I doubt that any reader of Richard Dawkins can easily navigate between Husserl, or Whitehead or Peirce...It is not strawman argument of my part anyway, only my opinion, a stupid opinion perhaps, but anyway only an opinion or a philosophical prejudice...:)
I wish you the best...