Essay Philosophy

Philosophy Essay

In “Descartes Evil Genius,” Descartes writes of the same evil genius or evil demon that promised the mother of us all, Eve, that if she ate the fruit, she would have all knowledge. The evil genius prides himself on the fact that he is able to fool any son of Adam and decides to show this by destroying everything and everyone, except one man’s mind, and changing all things and people into paper. ‘"Tomorrow, I will deceive," and he smiled, and his words were thin and like fine wire. "Tomorrow I will change everything, everything, everything. I will change flowers, human beings, trees, hills, sky, the sun, and everything else into paper. Paper alone I will not change. There will be paper flowers, paper human beings, paper trees. And human beings will be deceived.”’ At first, the young man left only with his mind, Tom, is fooled by the paper world. It isn’t until he uses all his five senses to realize he was being deceived. His friend, Millie, paper like and stiff, drops a bowl of flowers on the ground. Expecting to hear the sound of the bowl break, Tom hears nothing but a soft crunch as it hits the floor. He continues to touch the flowers, sniff the odorless smell, and even rip and taste his lip to come to a conclusion that the whole world was made out of paper. However, the moment Tom realizes that it is all an illusion, he is no longer deceived and the evil genius has failed.  Tom misquotes Descartes upon making this discovery. ‘"Those are perils that were his eyes," and he mutters, "Hypocritical pulp!" …Suddenly he is cheered. He ex- claims: "Cogito me papyrum esse, ergo sum'." He has triumphed over paperdom.”’  What Descartes originally says is “I think, therefore, I am.” However, in this quote that he says means, “I think I am paper, therefore I am.” Instead of proving his own existence and mind, Tom is trying to prove that he is paper.

Failing with the first world, the evil genius realizes that he will have to go beyond creating a world of...