Who Is Descartes’ Evil Genius? Cover Image
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Who Is Descartes’ Evil Genius?
Who Is Descartes’ Evil Genius?

Author(s): Samuel A. Stoner
Subject(s): Philosophy, Early Modern Philosophy
Published by: Zeta Books
Keywords: Descartes; Meditations on First Philosophy; Meditation One; narrator; self-possessed meditator; doubt; evil genius;

Summary/Abstract: This essay examines René Descartes’ Meditations on First Philosophy. It argues that the evil genius is the meditator who narrates Meditations and that Descartes’ goal in Meditation One is to transform his readers into evil geniuses. This account of the evil genius is significant because it explains why the evil genius must be finite and why it cannot call mathematics or logic into doubt. Further, it highlights the need to read the Meditations on two levels—one examining the meditator’s line of thinking on its own terms and the other exploring Descartes’ reasons for depicting the meditator’s progress in the way that he does.

  • Issue Year: 7/2018
  • Issue No: 2
  • Page Range: 9-29
  • Page Count: 21
  • Language: English