Descartes Evil Demon Hypothesis (1641) Origin of the Matrix Argument
Immortalist
than an elaborate hoax?
“It is at least possible that there is an all-powerful evil demon who
is deceiving me, such that he causes me to have false beliefs,
including the belief that there is a table in front of me and the
belief that two plus three equals five,” wrote Descartes. The all-
powerful evil demon, he argued, could feed us whatever experiences he
chooses. “I shall think that the sky, the air, the earth, colors,
shapes, sounds and all external things are merely the delusions of
dreams which he has devised to ensnare my judgment.”
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/dvorsky20090409
The evil daemon presents a complete illusion of an external world,
including other people, to Descartes' senses, where in fact there is
no such external world in existence. The evil genius also presents to
Descartes' senses a complete illusion of his own body, including all
bodily sensations, where in fact Descartes has no body. Most Cartesian
scholars opine that the evil daemon is also omnipotent, and thus
capable of altering mathematics and the fundamentals of logic.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evil_daemon
Descartes skeptical argument is an argument that raises the
possibility that something we take for granted we may have no real
reason to believe.
In the “First Meditation,” Descartes introduces a skeptical scenario
called the deceiving demon argument. This argument gives us reason to
believe that no external world exists; in particular, it raises the
possibility that some sort of malicious, demonic non-God, has
“employed all his energies in order to deceive me” (Descartes 15).
This demon has, purportedly, put us in a dream-like state where he
feeds us all of his ideas, making up what we think of as our external
world. For this reason, an external world may not exist at all: “the
sky, the air, the earth, colours, shapes, sounds, and all external
things [may be] merely the delusions of dreams which [the demon] has
devised to ensnare my judgment” (Descartes 15).
The first premise of the deceiving demon argument is that a “malicious
demon … [could have] employed all his energies in order to deceive
me” (Descartes 15). The only way to attack the validity of this
premise is to state that it is impossible that a deceiving demon could
exist. For example, one objection could state that God, with his
infinite benevolence, could not allow a malicious demon to deceive us.
However, it is possible that the demon himself planted the idea of God
in our head in the first place, undermining the objection. While
Descartes later tries to prove the existence of God through the use of
objective reality and the Causal Principles, there is no reason why
the malicious demon could not have planted those concepts in our head
as well, which is the second premise; namely, that any rationalization
against the existence of the demon could have simply come from the
demon in order to deceive us about his existence–i.e. Idea X may show
that a demon could not exist, but since idea X could have been planted
in our head by the demon himself, idea X cannot truly show that a
demon could not exist–and thus we have no reason to believe that the
demon does not exist. And, thus, the conclusion is that “all external
things [may] merely [be] the delusions of dreams which [the demon] has
devised to ensnare my judgment” (Descartes 15).
http://anemptybasket.wordpress.com/2008/01/22/descartes-and-the-deceiving-demon-argument/
bigfl...@gmail.com
> Is it possible, ...that what we think of as reality is nothing more
> than an elaborate hoax?
SNIP
The "all powerful demon" is the human mind.
The illusion in which it works is the past and the future.
Ever experienced past or future other than in your memory or
anticipation (which are also only ever experienced 'now')?
The mind is complex, the answers are simple.
BOfL
Zerkon
> Is it possible, ...that what we think of as reality is nothing more than
> an elaborate hoax?
>
> “It is at least possible that there is an all-powerful evil demon who is
> deceiving me, such that he causes me to have false beliefs
With all due respect to the great man but doesn't this sound
uncomfortably familiar to those who frequent this NG?
> “malicious demon … [could have] employed all his energies in order to
> deceive me”
Ouch!
> skeptical argument
I think not. Insanity argument is more like it. There is a difference
between having doubt and polarizing to an unapproachable position.
How can one rationally approach the position of "all-powerful evil
demon"? By just saying "No there isn't!"?.
> any rationalization against the existence of the demon could have
> simply come from the demon
Any argument for the demon could have simple come from god (and Bob's
your uncle).
Dare
news:f6bea420-220f-4bbb...@m17g2000prl.googlegroups.com...
It must be an awfully bored evil demon!
If it were true, would anything change for us?
It seems to me a bigger problem would be if the evil demon
were inconsistent in his deception...not just a hoax, but
an unpredictable hoax.
glird
>
> Is it possible, ...that what we think of as
> reality is nothing more than an elaborate
> hoax?
If you are a physicist, YES!
> “It is at least possible that there is an all-powerful evil demon who is deceiving me, such that he causes me to have false beliefs, including the belief that there is a table in front of me and the belief that two plus three equals five,” wrote Descartes. >
The "evil demon" doesn't exist; but physicists do. THEY planted the
nonsensical "reality" that wave systems can exist in empty space; that
the entire universe
spontaneously arose at a zero-volume point in nowhere when 'time'
began. THEY invented the mode of operations-without-any-controls that
almost bankrupted the USA. Although 2 + 3 = 5 is correct, THEY
convinced themselves thus almost everyone that mathematics, i.e.
equations, is the way reality is made; thus that if you know an
equation you understand everything. THEY think that e = mc^2 explains
things,even though they don't know what energy is and don't define
mass and misunderstand what light is.
> The all-powerful evil demon, he argued, could feed us whatever experiences he
chooses. “I shall think that the sky, the air, the earth, colors,
shapes, sounds and all external things are merely the delusions of
dreams which he has devised to ensnare my judgment.” >
Revised as follows, and it sounds familiar:
Our physicists feed us whatever experiences they choose. “I shall
think that the sky, the air, the earth, colors, shapes, sounds and all
external things are merely the delusions of my senses, dreams which
the Devil has devised to ensnare my judgment.”
> The [scientists] present a complete illusion of an external world, including [empty space filled with quanta], where in fact there is no such external world in existence. The evil genius also presents to
us a complete illusion of our own body, including all bodily
sensations, where in fact sense evidence is the only valid way to
understand that which really exists.
> Descartes skeptical argument is an argument that raises the possibility that something we take for granted we may have no real reason to believe.>
Such as that empty space has properties; that gravitational force
radiates at c; that matter converts into energy; that heat is just the
rate of inertial motion of atoms and molecules in empty space; that
"time" is just the indications of the hands of a clock; that equations
are the ultimate answer even though most of their symbols represent
things that no one understands.
> And, thus, the conclusion is that
“all external things [are] merely the
delusions of dreams which the demon
has devised to ensnare my judgment” >
is off the wall.
glird
Sir Frederick Martin
At least the "demon" hypothesis meets some hubris needs.
More likely, the situation is impersonal, superfluous, and trivial.
'Humans', in the situation, are probably like cockroaches are
to 'humans'.
Don Stockbauer
>
> At least the "demon" hypothesis meets some hubris needs.
> More likely, the situation is impersonal, superfluous, and trivial.
> 'Humans', in the situation, are probably like cockroaches are
Hell, you can just look out there and see that it's flat.
Monsieur Turtoni
allows the user to less conditioned by the experience and in-turn
opens things up for the likelihood that the user may possibly provide
more useful contributions to the situation; like science for example.
In fact, at a more basic level it may even encourage the user to drive
the experience rather than to allow the experience drive the user.
The negative take (the evil demon hypothesis), in understanding that
there really is no such thing as a "reality" is likely some sub-
conscious preoccupation with death.
SAMEJACK MCKINNEY
> is nothing more than an elaborate hoax?
Yeah, I'd say it's very possible, and one should always keep that
thought in the back of his mind.... A table looks real, but upon close
examination, the matter that is used to comprise the table is mostly
empty space; 99.9999% empty space... THAT FACT ALONE, SHOULD KEEP
EVERYONE ON HIS TOES...
IT IS THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE PHYSICAL SENSES, THAT CREATES THE
ILLUSION OF A SOLID TABLE...
Jeff
The mysterious alchemist Fulcanelli felt that God is an alchemist who
created the physical universe by converting energy into matter.
The stars convert matter back into energy through the nuclear
reaction.
It is very interesting how a relatively small amount of a radioactive
element such as plutonium can release tremendous amounts of energy.
When alchemists transformed for example lead into gold they felt that
the lead 'died' and was resurrected as gold. There is a spiritual
aspect of alchemy.
Jeff Marzano
Jeff
> Is it possible, ...that what we think of as reality is nothing more
> than an elaborate hoax?
>
There's an interesting theory that people can be reincarnted into any
time period past of future or even live the same life over again to
try to change something that they deeply regret.
This is a very strange idea since it implies that everyone and
everything else would have to exist in an infinite number of possible
futures.
This shows perhaps how all of our destinies are intertwined in ways
that are far beyond human comprehension.
Plato talks about this idea at the very end of The Republic. He tells
how everyone chooses from a pool of available life experiences. Then
the sisters of fate take all our choices and weave them on their loom
into the fabric of destiny.
In that sense perhaps the only thing that is truly real is peoples'
good or evil intentions, the love or hate between people, etc.. These
emotions create reality.
Jeff
Marzano
Fulcanelli: Master Alchemist: Le Mystere des Cathedrales, Esoteric
Intrepretation of the Hermetic Symbols of The Great Work (Le Mystere
Des Cathedrales ... of the Hermetic Symbols of Great Work) by
Fulcanelli (Paperback - Jan 15, 1984)
Same Soul, Many Bodies: Discover the Healing Power of Future Lives
through Progression Therapy by Brian Weiss (Paperback - Aug 30, 2005)
sarge
A (to some degree) less paranoid version is the simulation argument.
That what we experience as reality is a simulation being run by a
intelligent race. Here is one version of the argument....
http://www.simulation-argument.com/simulation.html
This idea is also taken seriously within physics - at least by some -
http://www.bottomlayer.com/bottom/argument/Argument4.html
http://www.newscientist.com/blog/technology/2008/01/vr-hypothesis.html