Posted by Annabel on June 24, 19101 at 06:13:34:

In Reply to: I can't prove or disprove descartes' evil demon exists. can I? posted by Alice van Wageningen on January 10, 19100 at 13:55:51:

Descartes suggests the possibility that we are controlled by an evil demon bent on universal deception. This malin génie deliberately seeks to deceive us, Descartes says, altering our perception of actuality. Leibniz, however, insists that this argument is false because of the contradiction that it implies.

In fact, Descartes is condemned by the contradiction of his own words. In stating that the demon “employ[s] all his artifice to deceive me” he effectively belies his whole argument because an all-deceptive demon would most certainly deceive you of his own existence; ie he would never bring your attention to the reality of his being. This point is illustrated by Frederick Broadie: “for if by chance we were to hit upon some loophole in [the demon’s] design he would be on the spot at once to close it and create even more sophisticated avenues of deception.” (1970: 15) The very fact that we can conceive of a deceitful demon reveals that it does not exist. Even if we allow for the possibility that the evil demon does exist, we must allow for the possibility that he is responsible for planting the idea of his existence in our head, and being the all-deceiving entity that he is, we can only ume that he is lying about his own existence!

Which ever way you examine it, Descartes's Evil Demon argument is faulty, imbued with indubitable and inescapable self-refutation.

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• Re: You CAN prove that the evil demon idea is false Alex Hodgson 07:56:27 5/02/102 (0)

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