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Descartes Demon Doubt Essay

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Throughout the Meditations, Descartes successfully establishes methodical doubt about math and all sensory information, 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 they exist. To call reality into doubt, Descartes supposes the existence of an all powerful, evil deceiver, a supposition which he asserts he cannot know to be false. Descartes supposes that it is conceivable that this deceiver has tricked him in every moment of what he perceived to be life, such that, every feeling and every experience Descartes ever had was merely a sequence synthesized by the deceiver. This being could powerful to not only manipulate our senses, but to cast doubt over other things such as mathematics.Thus, he renders himself into a state of complete uncertainty and denial of all known existence, since he cannot be certain that this deceiver does not exist. Any understanding or knowledge that there is could simply be an illusion or false input. Later, Descartes refutes the existence of such a being. Instead, he puts forth the assumption of a merciful God. His

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