Example Of Case Study On Descartes; The Evil Genius

The evil genius is a concept developed by Descartes where he held that there existed a clever and deceitful demon who “has directed his entire effort at deceiving me”. The evil genius causes the complete illusion of the external world and other minds rendering their existence as illusions. The evil genius also lends Descartes body an illusion including all the sensations of the body. By holding this view, Descartes holds that the evil genius manipulates his mind, fed with information to his brain concerning his body, and cannot ascertain to absolute surety of the existence of his body.
The theory is one of doubt where the Descartes casts doubts on the reliability of the sense function of human beings. Information received through these senses was not instantly verifiable, and was not ascertainable as the true position of affairs. These senses, as Descartes observed, do function in other times of the human existence such as through dreams. The illustration he chooses of the sensation of warmth he feels during sleep is an example of the doubt that he cast upon the sensory gained knowledge. The impossibility of ascertaining whether he was asleep or awake during these dreams, and while experiencing these sensations is another point of doubt cast on the sensory functions. Descartes sees the sensory function as more deceptive than informative; the fact that the senses can convey the sense of warmth to him while he is in his sleep confounds him on whether he is awake or asleep. The fact that he senses the fire, while in actual sense it is absent, makes it difficult for him to confirm the presence of that heat even in his waking life.
While Descartes wholly distrusted the sensory function as a source of reliable information and truth, he believed that ascertainable knowledge was only through the strict application of the reason to all problems. In addition, Descartes had the belief of his existence; the thinking function of the human being was proof enough of human existence. He reasons that thoughts have a source and that source must be the ‘I’ that does the thinking. Drawing from this analogy, Descartes went further to sum up that, even though the certainty of everything else of his existence eludes him, he was certain that he had thoughts and the ability to use reason.
The ability to use reason by human beings is an in alienable part of the individual. All information received by human beings is made useful by the reasoning capacity of the brain. While information sent out to various individuals, it does not invoke exactly similar reaction in all the individuals receiving it and as such shows the reasoning process unique to each person. While heat received from the sun may feel pleasant to the skin, the brain reasons when the heat is too much to seek shade. The reason function guides the activities that would be called ‘human activities’ and therefore prove of his existence.