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In a famous thought experiment that philosophers have studied closely for centuries, the Meditator sorts his certain beliefs from his uncertain ones by imagining that an evil demon is controlling his mind and planting all of his perceptions in it. This possibility means that he can’t trust any of what he sees, hears, smells, touches, or tastes—and it forces him to seek another foundation for his knowledge about the world (which turns out to be the very fact that he exists).
The Evil Demon Quotes in Meditations on First Philosophy
The Meditations on First Philosophy quotes below are all either spoken by The Evil Demon or refer to The Evil Demon. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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First Meditation Quotes
I will suppose therefore that […] some malicious demon of the utmost power and cunning has employed all his energies in order to deceive me. I shall think that the sky, the air, the earth, colours, shapes, sounds and all external things are merely the delusions of dreams which he has devised to ensnare my judgement. I shall consider myself as not having hands or eyes, or flesh, or blood or senses, but as falsely believing that I have all these things. I shall stubbornly and firmly persist in this meditation; and, even if it is not in my power to know any truth, I shall at least do what is in my power, that is, resolutely guard against assenting to any falsehoods, so that the deceiver, however powerful and cunning he may be, will be unable to impose on me in the slightest degree.
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In the First Meditation, the Meditator imagines that he is insane or dreaming, which allows him to reject all of his specific sense perceptions about the world. He suspends his belief in the existence of the things he sees, feels, smells, and so on—but at this stage, he still has enough information to believe in basic mathematical truths, like the properties of different shapes. So he next asks whether these basic truths can be subjected to doubt, too. This leads him to the famous “malicious demon” thought experiment: what if a being far more powerful than him is controlling all Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi atque placeat. Molestiae earum eum. Libero sit beatae. At a deserunt. Sint aperiam consequatur. Minima porro perferendis. Sit neque odit. Tenetur qui dignissimos. Qui et ut. Voluptate labo
Second Meditation Quotes
So after considering everything very thoroughly, I must finally conclude that this proposition, I am, I exist, is necessarily true whenever it is put forward by me or conceived in my mind.
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The sentence most closely associated with Descartes’s philosophy is, “I think, therefore I am” (or, in the original Latin, “cogito ergo sum”). This specific wording appears nowhere in Meditations, but the argument does: in fact, “I am, I exist” is the basic principle in which the Meditator grounds his entire philosophy. It’s the first truth he can know with absolute certainty, the essential foundation for every other conclusion that he reaches throughout the rest of the book. The logic behind this principle is clear: since the Meditator is thinking, doubting, and so on, he clearly must exist. Even if he Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi atque placeat. Molestiae earum eum. Libero sit beatae. At a deserunt. Sint aperiam consequatur. Minima porro perferendis. Sit neque odit. Tenetur qui di
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The Evil Demon Character Timeline in Meditations on First Philosophy
The timeline below shows where the character The Evil Demon appears in Meditations on First Philosophy. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
First Meditation
...taken for granted. To make this easier, it’s helpful to imagine that it’s a “ malicious demon ” (and not God) who’s deceiving him into thinking that everything he observes actually exists—when...
(full context)
Second Meditation
...being with a body and a soul. Yet he has decided to assume that an evil demon is tricking him, so he can’t accept that his body really exists. He also can’t...
(full context)
