• Home Page
  • Argumentative Essay: Descartes Evil Genius

Argumentative Essay: Descartes Evil Genius

Great Essays
Show More
Reality, a state of the world for what things truly are and as they truly exist. Reality has perplexed philosophers to an extent, but perhaps none more so than the maddening words of Descartes in his meditations. To say that his words are maddening is a bit ingenuous to Descartes, but what he does propose is out of place. There have been skeptics before Descartes, but the level of skepticism he reaches is quite absurd and even more, it would be absurd if it was even true and could not be refuted in any argument. To begin with Descartes’ evil genius, there will be two vital topics of discussion, doubt, and certainty.

Doubt is a key concept when it comes to Skepticism and even more so when it comes to Descartes’ Evil Genius. The concept is simple, there is an evil genius who takes everything in your life and replaces it with something that is not real. As a result, your surroundings are no longer real. This is where Descartes begins, by knowing that the evil genius has …show more content…
I would say yes and no. If we were still postulating the reality of the world and judging our senses, then it would be yes. If we were still to believe in our senses and our surrounding, then no. We would continue living as if the world was still existing in reality even though it is not. It would grant us peace to not know if the reality was false, to continue our lives as if nothing was wrong. To live in such a peaceful bliss to the point that our surroundings don’t matter, that is the most self-deluded of persons. On the other hand, if we were to know is this world was false, we would live in fear of both ourselves and the world around us. We would question everything that would occur, that the distant whispers of the truth would drive us to insanity. But just as Descartes believes, we must see that there are a few certainties. Perhaps the belief that god is certain is enough to drive people to believe that life, no matter how false it is, is

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    The Problem With Cartesian Skepticism
    • 713 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The Problem With Cartesian Skepticism

    2. The problem with Cartesian skepticism is that there is not enough evidence to prove that the world around us is always false. Descartes is trying to prove his point off of logic instead of actual evidence. Descartes is putting too much faith on the mind over the physical world. When he explains an evil being manipulating our thoughts and senses he still cannot prove that the evil being actually exists.…

    • 713 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Decent Essays

    Hum/202 Week 2 Reading Question Paper
    • 354 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Hum/202 Week 2 Reading Question Paper

    Descartes prefers creating new concepts rather than building knowledge on old philosophies: “To reach certainty- to cast aside the loose earth and sand so as to come upon rock and clay”-He said. Descartes argues that, he needs to think and experience himself to confirm a scientific truth. To even establish a sturdier foundation and seek further knowledge, he looks for reasons to doubt his own opinion. If there is doubt about the basic principles of his opinions, he will doubt his other opinions.…

    • 354 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Descartes Dream Argument For Skepticism
    • 1051 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Descartes Dream Argument For Skepticism

    His initial premise, doubting reality, follows the process of thinking regarding the mind's perception of its environment. The body and mind are separate in Descartes' understanding. Though they work in tandem, human experience is dependent on the mind. The body is merely a vessel for the mind, and its senses cannot be trusted to determine reality. The mind, then, is what must be examined to determine the scope of reality.…

    • 1051 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Superior Essays

    Analysis Of Descartes Meditations Of First Philosophy
    • 1190 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Analysis Of Descartes Meditations Of First Philosophy

    We must doubt what we know, to achieve a better understanding of everything around us. Descartes believed in our ability as humans to think, and to question what we know to attain knowledge. He brought up the objections to his doubts, and explained them thoroughly. His theories came full circle, and supported his premises. Depicting the difference between reality and imagination seems like an unchallenging task, yet it’s complexity changes when doubt is brought into the equation.…

    • 1190 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Renee Descartes False
    • 458 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Renee Descartes False

    Renee Descartes writes on the uncertainty that he has of his memories and experiences in his paper titled “The Cogito”, which was written in 1643. The main focus of this paper is Descartes coming to terms that nothing is really certain other than the fact that Descartes himself exists and thinks. Descartes comes to this uncertainty since he believes that he has no reason to believe in any sense experience that he has. Descartes’ lack of belief of the external world is clear when he writes that he supposes “that all things [he] sees are false” (qtd. in Jacobsen 193).…

    • 458 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Compare And Contrast Zhuangzi And Descartes
    • 775 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Compare And Contrast Zhuangzi And Descartes

    Descartes believed that all we can know is information that we are certain of. Knowledge with any amount of skepticism, according to Descartes, proves to be unreliable and thus, not real knowledge. Therefore, he further stated that the knowledge obtained through the senses is not real knowledge because the senses can be deceiving and biased to individuals. Descartes even is skeptical of concepts such as math because he believed that one is just told that two plus three is five, but one cannot be certain. According to Descartes, an "evil genius of the utmost power and cunning has employed all his energies in order to deceive me."…

    • 775 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Rene Descartes Dreaming Argument Essay
    • 1211 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Rene Descartes Dreaming Argument Essay

    In order to do this he uses what is referred to as the method of doubt. (Broughton, 2003) Descartes’ method of doubt is to analyse and reject every belief that it is possible to cast the slightest of doubt upon. This method was not to look at every belief separately but to look at…

    • 1211 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Analysis Of Descartes's Inception
    • 1047 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Analysis Of Descartes's Inception

    This reality mimics the real world and will manifests real people, feelings, and places. It would be almost uncertain to think that it was not of the real thing. Cobb becomes tormented by falling in between the small crack within reality and unreality. Descartes ends this mediation by saying “Perhaps nothing is certain” (Descartes 347) tying in to the exact feelings of Cobb with his overpowering uncertainty.…

    • 1047 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Analysis Of Michael Huemer's The Lure Of Radical Skepticism
    • 1193 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Analysis Of Michael Huemer's The Lure Of Radical Skepticism

    In Michael Huemer’s essay, “The Lure of Radical Skepticism,” he expands on the idea that ‘we cannot know anything,’ by outlining four different arguments supporting the claim. (Huemer 47-57) René Descartes holds the opposite opinion, which he discusses in ‘Meditations One and Two.’ While there is validity to both sides of the argument, Huemer’s essay proves to be more reliable after dissecting Descartes’ concepts of existence. Huemer proposes that no one can know anything about the external world, or anything that exists outside of the mind.…

    • 1193 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Descartes Third Meditation Analysis
    • 1901 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Descartes Third Meditation Analysis

    Descartes’ “Discourse on Method and Meditations on First Philosophy” is ultimately his journey for true knowledge. In his third meditation he tackles the topic of whether or not there is a God. So far he has talked on his methods of how to find true knowledge such as taking everything that he thinks he knows and discarding it as well as only basing what is true on the fact that he can prove it within his own mind. He has concluded this for multiple reasons such as his senses may all be just a dream and the fact that he may have been deceived by an outside force.…

    • 1901 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Great Essays

    Descartes Dreaming Argument
    • 1047 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Descartes Dreaming Argument

    As long as Descartes’ is able to think, he will exist. Therefore, something must already be in existence that is thinking. Descartes’ may still question, or even doubt the capacity in which he exists, but this doubt serves as a proof in the reality that he does, in fact, exist. In his quest to find true doubt in realities, Descartes’ begins to question not only if God exists, but if he does, how a good God that he does believe in, who is perfection and can do all things, would allow people to feel as deceived about reality as he felt.…

    • 1047 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Great Essays
    Read More
  • Superior Essays

    Descartes Truth And Reality Analysis
    • 1549 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Descartes Truth And Reality Analysis

    Something which can be difficult to distinguish when reading the Meditations is whether Descartes is talking about truth in its purest sense or reality. In the second meditation, he argues that when looking to establish truth we need to accept that we exist otherwise we cannot judge the truth in anything else. But this can be confusing as he is relating truth and reality and equalling them to each other. If Descartes here, is referring to the idea of reality he is arguing that for us to judge the reality of anything else, we must admit that through our ability to think for ourselves and rationalise, we must be real. However, if he is referring to truth, then he is using the truth of our own thoughts to rationalise the truth of all else.…

    • 1549 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Argument On Descartes Vs Hume
    • 1195 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Argument On Descartes Vs Hume

    Sheyla Vera Phil 106 Fall 2015 Descartes vs Hume Even though all philosophers claim to have different set of ideas and theories they all basically begin questioning the same thing. From one’s existence, gods existence, and the existence of the soul apart from the body. They all, in some way or another, have argued whether or not another philosopher’s theories are valid or not. When this happens we, as the readers, see the flaws that the previous theory had and then the possible flaws another philosopher might make when argue on the validity of a theory. Hume and Descartes are two philosophers who have argued on how we have come to know what we claim is truth in reference to knowledge, amongst other ideas pertaining to the mind.…

    • 1195 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Superior Essays

    Examples Of Appearance And Reality In The Movie The Matrix
    • 1372 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Examples Of Appearance And Reality In The Movie The Matrix

    The Matrix: Final There is an assurance that at one point in life, the end will come for each individual and everybody will perish at one point. For now, as humans and living things, we are all doing what we do best, exist. However, imagine if the life one believes to be a part of was not actual and in fact, it was all just a virtual concept in the mind. Having had watched the film, The Matrix, this paper analyzes comparisons between appearance and reality to the writings of Bertrand Russell’s, Problems of Philosophy. Thenceforward, René Descartes’, Meditations on First Philosophy are examined and the Method of Doubt is conveyed, carefully analyzing each of its stages.…

    • 1372 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Critical Analysis Of René Descartes Meditations On First Philosophy
    • 703 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Critical Analysis Of René Descartes Meditations On First Philosophy

    René Descartes first builds up his position in Meditations on First Philosophy by starting with pushing aside all that we know and learned as it was based on the empiricist thinking, that our beliefs are to be based on our sense experience, which is the perceived foundation of how everyone thinks. This way of thinking, according to Descartes, should be abandon as it is a defective way to do so when learning. Even thinking by numbers and figures are not a good foundation when gaining knowledge in Descartes’ Meditations, so he takes through his thoughts so that we come to same conclusion as him on why the methodological doubt should be used to better our understanding of the world. The beliefs we currently have are invalid since our senses…

    • 703 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More

Related Topics

Ready To Get Started?
Discover
Company
Follow
©2024 Cram.com
Privacy Policy |  About Ads |  Site Map |  Advertise  | 
  • Cookie Settings