The Existence Of Evil Demon - 1020 Words

On Meditation 1, the philosopher Rene Descartes centers on the idea that senses can not be trusted. Since in the past senses deceived him and let to false beliefs. Therefore his main concern is to erase all of the false beliefs he held to be true by analyzing and questioning which of them should be unreliable. Descartes, then, creates a new belief system in which all of the beliefs are correct. By doing this, he eliminates the doubt by arguing the possibility of an evil demon that is capable of deceiving our senses and even the mathematical knowledge we might have. That is, maybe this evil demon manipulates my thoughts so I can see only what he wants me to see. It is like that the only existent things in the world are the evil demon and I. Nothing else around me exists. But can I question things not perceived by the senses? Is it possible to doubt that a square has four sides and 1+1=2? The answer would be yes. This evil demon can put this into my mind so I can see it. Thus, I do not have any mathematical knowledge. If this is the case, then I should not trust anything that comes from my senses and reasons. Therefore, nothing based upon sense experience can count as certain. Another skeptical argument Descartes present in meditation 1 is whether or not we can distinguish dreams from reality. In this argument, Descartes is saying that when I dream I have similar sense experience as to when I am awake. However, those experiences are not precisely accurate as toShow MoreRelatedEssay about Descartes First Meditation924 Words   |  4 Pages On the contrary, he uses these arguments to help prove one of his main theses, which is the existence of God. One of the main premises that Descartes uses in his proof for the existence of God comes from the evil demon argument, which he proposed, in the first meditation. It is this evil demon argument, which will be the topic of the following discussion. The purpose of Descartes#8217; evil demon argument is to establish doubt upon his belief that God is the sole figure who puts thoughts intoRead MoreDescartes’ Cogito Argument Successfully Shows the Evil Demon Argument is Unsound888 Words   |  4 PagesDoes Descartes’ Cogito argument successfully show that the Evil Demon Argument is unsound? In this essay I will attempt to show that the philosopher, Renà ¨ Descartes’ Cogito Argument successfully proves the Evil Demon Argument to be unsound. By an analysis of the structure of the arguments and what they prove, I will show the evil demon argument to be unsound. An argument is unsound when the premises as false and the argument is invalid. This analysis of both structure and content will eventuateRead MoreDescartes Epistemology1696 Words   |  7 Pagesall good and never deceptive, he named his deceiver the â€Å"Evil Demon† a complete opposite to his wholesome observation of God (Blackburn, 2001:19). Descartes established that the â€Å"Evil Demon† argument could wipe away any assurance of his prior knowledge except for one: his existence (Descartes, 1984:17). This was a good argument because it presented a well thought out reason to question his knowledge. Descartes argued that if an â€Å"Evil Demon† truly existed and is only focused on deceiving him thenRead MoreAnalysis Of Descartes s The Meditations Essay1580 Words   |  7 Pagesinformation, however, his answer to the doubt cast by the Evil Demon ploy does not fully relieve the dilemma of skepticism that his intense application of doubt has brought forth. Ultimately, Descartes is unable to satisfactorily answer the Evil Demon doubt because his argument does not prove that God’s existence would not prevent the serious errors in judgment and perception caused by the Evil Demon doubt. Descartes uses the Evil Demon hypothesis to prove that all one knows for sure is that theyRead MoreEssay about The Intent of Bouwsmas Descartes Evil Genius794 Words   |  4 PagesThe Intent of Bouwsmas Descartes Evil Genius Bouwsmas essay critiques Descartes use of the evil demon in his Meditations on First Philosophy through the creation of two situations in which the evil genius attempts to use his powers for their express purpose, that of deception. Bouwsma conveniently admits the existence of four or five clear and distinct ideas and goes on to show that the evil genius is capable of deceiving mankind about everything else, specifically sensory perceptionsRead MoreThe Dream Inside Of A Dream By Christopher Nolan1683 Words   |  7 Pagesmodeled after the work of Descartes. More specifically, I will discuss how the movie is based off of Descartes dream conjecture and evil-demon conjecture. In order to better structure this paper I will first provide briefing on Renà © Descartes. Renà © Descartes lived during the sixteenth century, and is most famously known for his dream conjecture and his evil-demon conjecture. Collectively, these ideas formed the start of Descartes’ skepticism idea. Descartes was known to refuse to accept the authorityRead MoreDescartes Meditation On First Philosophy943 Words   |  4 PagesPhilosophy, Descartes argues that his idea of God must have come from God himself. One can also wonder whether that very own argument could also apply when Descartes has an idea of the Evil Demon. In this paper, I will argue that Descartes would not think that his having an idea of the Evil Demon proves that the Evil Demon exists. In his paper, Descartes was trying to find the source of his idea of God in order to prove that God exists or not. Descartes states that all of his ideas come from threeRead MoreAnalysis Of Descartes Dreaming Argument812 Words   |  4 Pagesbe certain of anything. His evil demon argument is similar but uses the idea of an evil demon deceiving you instead of your senses. These sceptical arguments mean that we cannot be certain of anything at all for it may be happening whilst we are dreaming, or we are being tricked into thinking it is happening. I do not agree with Descartes because I feel that I can be certain I am not dreaming, and I do not believe that other supernatural creatures; such as an evil demon exists. In Descartes’ FirstRead MoreAn Analysis Of Descartes And The Dreaming Argument1390 Words   |  6 PagesThis essay will take a look at Descartes Dreaming argument and Evil Demon argument. As well as discussing their weaknesses and strengths to later decide which argument is the best. Despite my belief of subjective truths, the reason for doing this is to establish both arguments on an equal basis and to determine which would be best in an argument. The Dreaming argument first showed up in Descartes First Meditation, where he focusses on the task to educate himself on his own doubt. When meditatingRead MoreImmune Of Doubt By Rene Descartes916 Words   |  4 Pagesassertion, Descartes had to establish that he exists and subsequently make several enquiries about his attributes and be able to demonstrate that he can only be sure of his ability to think. In the process of questioning his own existence Descartes starts by denying the existence of his body and his senses, perhaps the two most important things that we humans associate with our being. He biases these denials on the fact that he had dreams before that had seemed just as vivid as ‘real life’ perhaps he