Epistemology Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ====Cartesian skepticism==== The [[evil demon|Cartesian evil demon problem]], first raised by [[RenΓ© Descartes]],{{Refn|group=note|name=PlatoCaveVsBrainVat}} supposes that our sensory impressions may be controlled by some external power rather than the result of ordinary veridical perception.<ref name="Descartes1"/> In such a scenario, nothing we sense would actually exist, but would instead be mere illusion. As a result, we would never be able to know anything about the world, since we would be systematically deceived about everything. The conclusion often drawn from evil demon skepticism is that even if we are not completely deceived, all of the information provided by our senses is still ''compatible'' with skeptical scenarios in which we are completely deceived, and that we must therefore either be able to exclude the possibility of deception or else must deny the possibility of ''infallible'' knowledge (that is, knowledge which is completely certain) beyond our immediate sensory impressions.<ref name="Descartes2"/> While the view that no beliefs are beyond doubt other than our immediate sensory impressions is often ascribed to Descartes, he in fact thought that we ''can'' exclude the possibility that we are systematically deceived, although his reasons for thinking this are based on a highly contentious [[ontological argument]] for the existence of a benevolent God who would not allow such deception to occur.<ref name="Descartes1"/> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page