Descartes’ Cogito Argument Successfully Shows the Evil...

Does Descartes’ Cogito argument successfully show that the Evil Demon Argument is unsound? In this essay I will attempt to show that the philosopher, Renà ¨ Descartes’ Cogito Argument successfully proves the Evil Demon Argument to be unsound. By an analysis of the structure of the arguments and what they prove, I will show the evil demon argument to be unsound. An argument is unsound when the premises as false and the argument is invalid. This analysis of both structure and content will eventuate in objections on the aforementioned categories. To take any of Descartes’ arguments in consideration I have to understand why he started his meditations in order to prove Gods’ existence and to gain clear and distinct knowledge. At the same time of his first meditation he was engaged in a raging war within Europe and lost some his close family members (Smith, K., 2014), he too was at risk of death – all because of certain religious beliefs. It is easy to understand that he wrote all of his meditations in order for himself to be sure of dying for what he believed in. Descartes’ first meditation works in three stages: at first he tries to show that he does not have any empirical knowledge, meaning he does not have any knowledge based on his senses since he proved that his senses could possibly be deceiving him. He then says that it does not rule out his ‘a priori’ knowledge which is knowledge that does not require observation or experience but it is rather mathematical