Descartes’ “evil genius scenario” provides the possibility for the existence of an evil genius that is in control of our world in place on an omnipotent god. By in control, I mean that he would in some magical way compose our lives by his own will, thus making any certain knowledge about material objects impossible. This scenario presents some real questions with Descartes’ argument because it basically completely rules out the possibility of any god. We are imagining that Dr.
Spiritus has invaded a small rural hospital and has stolen the brains of several babies. He places the brains in a large vat, provides them with the essential nutrients as well as hooking them up to electrodes that feed the false images into their minds. These impulses that the doctor would distribute at his own will would make the babies brains think that they are actually in their bodies living their lives as normal people. The doctor would provide all the necessary experiences such as childhood, school, first love and etc. However since Dr. Spiritus is an evil genius, he feels it necessary to feed these minds the stimuli of pain, suffering, and disaster.
The first question that arises is if it is possible to determine if one is not among Dr. Spiritus’ victims. According to Descartes, the answer is yes. Descartes states that God is an infinite, omnipotent, omniscient substance. He also says that humans are not capable of causing this thought, because human’s minds are finite.
The Essay on Man’s Nature is Evil – Hsun Tzuu
Man’s basis need is to survive and thrive. This is such because he loves himself. This love for himself is makes him selfish and selfishness makes him evil. There is no one in this world that doesn’t love himself. This love for himself makes him put his needs over everything else. Putting one’s needs over other and not being considerate towards others and harming them for own advantage is evil. ...
Therefore, the mere existence of the thought of god proves that the thought must have an origin and this would be of course god-the only being capable of conceiving himself. Once we accept this, the possibility of an evil genius would be destroyed. Should it prove impossible to determine that one is not among the victims, epistemological problems would then arise. The first and foremost problem is that we could no longer have any certain knowledge.
This is so because if there was an evil genius, no empirical knowledge could be certain. This is obvious because if we were a victim of Dr. Spiritus, everything we know would be nothing be a dream conjured by the evil genius. If we could not prove that we weren’t a victim of Dr. Spiritus’ evil plot, the only thing we could be sure of is that we have a mind and our mind has thoughts.
Is there some empirical or non-empirical procedure that one might use to determine whether one is a brain in a vat rather than in a real person? The answer to this is simply no. When a human has a dream, they think that the events in the dream are actually taking place and have no idea that they are actually fast asleep in their beds. If our brain was in a vat instead of in a living body, the things that would be seen and felt would be nothing more than a mere dream. Therefore, it would be impossible to devise some sort of a test to determine the actual location of your brain. Assuming that Dr. Spiritus has total dominion over our minds, does it make a difference if the brains were able to communicate among themselves? As long as the evil genius has set the same boundaries, so to speak, for each brain hooked up to electrodes, it would make no difference whether or not these minds had the ability to communicate.
For one of Dr. Spiritus’s to len brains, is there any certain knowledge still possible, is there any that is questionable? Like previously stated, the only certain knowledge that one could have if he or she is a victim of the evil genius, is that they have a mind and that mind has thoughts. Everything else would not be certain. There is nothing else that one could even consider questionable. In conclusion, Descartes’ idea of an evil genius arises many questions about certain knowledge. If you can’t rule out the possibility of the evil genius, one could never be certain of anything at all in this world.
The Essay on Descartes Meditation One Evil Genius
Descartes' Meditation One Being a foundational ist, Descartes needs to destroy the foundations of his beliefs so that in his Meditations he will be able to build upon new foundations of undeniable and self evident truths. In order to do this Descartes must first find a valid argument that will allow him to doubt his foundation beliefs and in turn doubt what is considered to be reality. He begins ...
My question is whether or not it is possible to have both an evil genius and an omnipotent god. This whole notion of an evil doctor breaking into a hospital and stealing babies is a perfect example. Surely man will someday have the technology to accomplish such a feat that Dr. Spiritus accomplished.
Could there not be a god that is outside of the brains in the vat? Does this rule out Descartes’ idea that the existence of god rules out the existence of an evil genius? Perhaps this all really is just a dream.
