An Idea Of The Evil Demon: Exemplar Essay To Follow

Abstract: In this paper, I will discuss the logic behind Descartes’s idea which he believes to prove the existence of God and compare it to a thought of the Evil Demon. The structure of my essay will mainly be about Descartes’s First and Third Meditations.
Descartes illustrates his idea of God and prove that God exist in Third Meditation where he illustrates the source of the Evil Demon. One may think that Descartes applied to the concept of Evil Devil. At the same time on the basis of analyzing of his works I believe that Descartes would not consider the Evil Demon to exist. In order to prove that it is necessary to define the reasons why the God exists according to philosophy of Descartes.
Descartes claims that all his ideas are mainly come from three different things. He elaborates that some ideas “seem to be innate, some to be caused from the outside, and others to have been invented by himself” (Third Meditation, page10, para.5). He explains that the innate ideas mean a thing or truth that he understood when he was born (Third Meditation, page10, para.5). The ideas caused from the outside encompass the knowledge and experience of a man instilled by society. The ideas invented by a person come from his internal feelings, sensations, and willingness. Also, Descartes presents an example to prove his saying. He says that “his hearing a noise or seeing the sun or feeling the fire comes from things outside him” (Third Meditation, page10, para.5). Those reasons are well define where Descartes’s ideas come from which leads to an idea about the existence of God.
Descartes has the idea of a “supreme God” which proves that the God exist. He also gives out the definition of God. He explains that “God is eternal, infinite, unchangeable, omniscient, omnipotent and the creator of everything that exists except for himself” (Third Meditation, Page11, para.8, page12, para.1). In his mind, the idea of God is the highest level of anything, and God is a creator who creates everything. Also, God possess the power to influence the minds of people. Then, he utilizes some arguments to analysis an idea of God prove the God exists. First of all, Descartes refers to two concepts which are Intrinsic reality and Representative reality. Intrinsic reality is viewed to consider degrees of perfection of one creature. Therefore the significance of creatures may be rated according to these levels. For example, cats are less perfection than human. Representative reality refers to an idea that represents the reality in general (Third Meditation, page12, para.2). Descartes believes that “everything must have some cause (Third Meditation, page12, para.5),” and everything must presuppose the intrinsic and representative reality in order to preserve eternal balance (Third Mediation, page12, para3). This sentence justifies the fact that everything needs to have some degree of perfection. Let me give the following example that the cause of Descartes’s idea of God must have as much intrinsic reality as representative reality in the idea. The coincidence of Intrinsic and Representative realities means that idea of something may serve as affirmative argument to prove the its existence. God is a perfect creator of creatures. The idea of Him as the Supreme power explains the origin of people. That is the reason why God must be the cause of everything. Therefore, those arguments have strong evidences to show that the idea of God prove God exists.
One may think that Descartes subconsciously accepted the idea of the Evil Demon that came from his dream. He states that “ideas don’t depend on his will, it does not follow that they must come from things located outside him. Perhaps they come from some faculty of him other than his will----one that he does not fully know about----which produces these ideas without help from external things (Third Meditation, page 11, para.4).” At the same time it is rather little evidence of the indirect mention of the existence of the Evil Demon. Nevertheless he admitted the idea of something that may occur despite our will. For this end he uses an example about two ideas of the sun (Third Meditation, page11, para.6) to show that there are some blind impulse which gives him the images that come from outside to imagine through the sense of organs (Third Meditation, page11, para.7).
An idea of the Evil Demon will not prove the Evil Demon exist. In Descartes’s view, the Evil Demon is a character who is “malicious, powerful, and cunning” to deceive people (Frist Meditation, page3, para.3). In First Meditation, Descartes states that the Evil Demon “have deceived him, and it is unwise to trust completely those who have deceived us even once” (First Meditation, page1, para3). This argument provides powerful evidence to demonstrate Descartes’s points of view that he does not think the Evil Demon exists. Also, the cause of Descartes’s idea of the Evil Demon has less perfection than God because the Evil Demon will deceive people, while the God is infinite and perfect who will “stop the Evil Demon from letting him be deceived” (First Mediation, page2,para.7).
Therefore the presupposed concept of Evil Devil is finite and imperfect and God is finite and perfect. It means that Evil Devil cannot be the cause of God. Descartes also images the scene where there is no God. He describes that he will become “the product of the fate or chance or a long chain of causes and effects” (First Meditation, page2, para7). The imperfectness of Evil Demon occurs through his power to mislead people and deceive them. In case there is no God, people will lose the right judgment of things solely ruled by the Evil Demon. Thus, the idea of Evil Demon cannot prove the Evil Demon exists.
In short, Descartes keeps the idea of God prove the God exists, but the logic behind that argument is impossible for Descartes to believe the idea of the Evil Demon prove the existence of the Evil Demon.