Descartes Argument Analysis

With that in mind, Descartes begins to sketch arguments that call all his a priori knowledge into doubt. The first of those, is an argument regarding God. Descartes writes how it is firmly rooted in his mind that there is an omnipotent God, who created him, and the whole world. He follows that by adding, however, that there is no way for him to know if God did in fact create the earth, the sky, and the the things he sees, but is merely deceiving Descartes into believing they exist. Furthermore, what is not to say that God could be actually deceiving Descartes’ mind in relation to rational knowledge as well? He writes, “how do I know that God has not brought it about that I too go wrong every time I add two and three [...]” God, being Descartes’ creator and the creator of everything else, and so powerful, might be …show more content…
Since he admits this is a rather difficult task, Descartes presents one last reason for doubt, which he will use to guard himself to assenting to any falsehoods. He states that it is maybe not God - who according to Descartes, is supremely good - that is deceiving him, but instead, an evil demon. This malicious demon is exceptionally powerful, and is doing all he can to deceive Descartes. The evil demon argument is an argument that entangle all the previous reasons for doubt. This evil demon, which has “employed all his energies in order to deceive [Descartes]”, can account for doubts of both a posteriori and a priori knowledge. The evil demon might deceive Descartes into believing there is a sky an air, and might also make Descartes go wrong whenever he is counting the sides of a square. This argument, more than add anything new, simply reinstates how everything could be false - because there is a powerful creature working all its powers to ensure Descartes is always