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Argumentative Essay: Descartes Evil Genius

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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

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