“Am I so dependent on the body and the senses that without these I cannot exist? But I had the persuasion that there was absolutely nothing in the world, that there was no sky and no earth, neither minds nor bodies; was I not, therefore, at the same time, persuaded that I did not exist? Far from it; I assuredly existed, since I was persuaded. But there is I know not what being, who is possessed at once of the highest power and the deepest cunning, who is constantly employing all his ingenuity in deceiving me. Doubtless, then, I exist, since I am deceived; and, let him deceive me as he may, he can never bring it about that I am nothing, so long as I shall be conscious that I am something.”
Rene Descartes
The Evil Demon comes to us from Descartes. In coming up with the cogito, he concluded that an Evil Demon could deceive him about everything except that he exists. He has to be correct about the fact that he exists in order to be deceived by an Evil Demon, so that’s the one thing an Evil Demon couldn’t deceive him about.
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