Posted: September 13th, 2017

Having the idea of evil demon proves it existence

Paper, Order, or Assignment Requirements

In Meditation III, Descartes offers an argument for God’s existence, using as a premise that he (Descartes) has an idea of God. One might wonder whether such an argument would apply in the case of others of Descartes’ ideas. E.g., would Descartes think that his having an idea of the Evil Demon proves that the Evil Demon exists? This is the question you are to answer in your essay. And you are to explain and defend your answer. In the course of your essay, you should address the following: why did Descartes think that his having an idea of God proves God exists? How does the idea of the Evil Demon differ from the idea of God and how is it similar? What, in keeping with Descartes’ position, is or could be the source of his idea of the Evil Demon? 

You must have a thesis (exactly one of: Descartes would think that his having an idea of the Evil Demon proves that the Evil Demon exists or Descartes would not think that his having an idea of the Evil Demon proves that the Evil Demon exists, though you don’t need to use those exact words). You must defend your thesis and tie your interpretation of Descartes to the text. You should assume your reader is an intelligent person who has little knowledge of Descartes’ views.

What is important is not which thesis you adopt, but the strength of the case you make for it, including your use of textual evidence. I am quite sure (almost to the point of Cartesian certainty!) that there will be good papers whose conclusions are contradictories.