Student Question
Why does Descartes imagine an evil genius deceiving him?
Quick answer:
Descartes imagines an evil genius deceiving him to explore the certainty of knowledge. This thought experiment suggests that if an evil genius can deceive him about the reality of the world, it implies he can doubt everything except his own existence. The act of deception itself confirms that he exists, as there must be a "self" to be deceived. Therefore, while he can doubt external reality, he cannot doubt his own existence.
Descartes uses the figure of an evil genius as part of a thought experiment to establish absolutely certain knowledge. Suppose, says Descartes, that everything I see around me, everything I experience, is just a gigantic trick pulled on me by an evil genius (like the Devil, for example). That only means that I can doubt the world around me; it does not mean, however, that I can doubt my own existence. If I have been tricked by an evil genius into thinking the world is real, there still has to be someone to trick in the first place. As a result, although I can never be certain about the existence of the world of objects, I can be certain that I exist, even if I have been tricked by an evil genius.
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