eEvil Demons in My Head

A detailed Summary of eEvil Demons in My Head

Descartes proposes that all of our experiences are merely an ongoing dream. Meaning, everything we know and understand to be "real" is a sham. In this paper I am going to argue, first that through this thought-experiment Descartes tries to deny the concept of knowledge. Second, I will show how he responds to his own questions posed through his hypothesis. Lastly, I will demonstrate how the film "Matrix" helps one to realize the relevance of Descartes' thought-experiment.

Descartes realizes in order for him to take this thought seriously, he must demolish all doubt he may carry with him into his experiment. For if he has doubt about what he is thinking then how could he take his own thoughts seriously let alone anyone else. He does this by locking himself away to complete his thoughts. After he accomplishes, this he begins his meditations. He begins his argument with a curious thought; dreaming, what is it? He first looks at the things around him. Descartes analyzes them over and over again trying to figure out if they are really there or if he is dreaming that they are there. He observes that when you dream you usually assume that if you pinch yourself during a dream you will wake up,

or if it hurts you aren't dreaming, but he asks, could it be you are dreaming the hurt from the pinch? It's a curious thought if you think hard enough about it. Does the pain actually exist or are you only dreaming of the pain in your dream? He begins to believe that the pain is only our minds telling us it hurts; it's merely a figment of our imagination. Descartes goes on to start to doubt his senses. Is the color we see actually that color or is it a different color, or further more is it even a color could it be some thing else. This is how be comes up with the idea that we do not have thoughts for ourselves and that anything that we believe or perceive to be "real" is actually a dream implanted in our heads by an evil-demon. He challenges that idea of knowledge because with his evil-demon theory, there is no such thing as "self-thought". Everything we think is a sense experience by our bodies is only a predetermined thought implanted by an evil demon that controls your mind. Descartes challenges all that has to do with the mind; thoughts, dreams, experiences, everything, but he is not quite sure what to think about the body. Meaning he isn't quite sure whether we have bodies and the demon only taps into our brains or if us as a whole is just an imaginary idea. That we are only this brains sitting in a pool of goo with hundreds of thousands of wires connected to us it make our brain think that we are actually feeling something with our hand when actually we don't have that hand. Descartes leaves himself and us with this challenge against knowledge.

The box office smash hit "Matrix" came around in 1998. With its all-star cast, amazing story line, and stunning visual graphics, "Matrix" was a huge hit with the public. But very few, if any, of the millions who saw the movie realized where the idea for the movie came from. Good old Descartes gave them their idea. The idea of what you know isn't really what you know plays the main theme in the movie. For instance the main character Mr. Anderson, or also know as Neo, is caught in the "fake" world and he wants to escape, so these other people help him get his "real" body back and rescue him from the "evil-demon". The evil-demon in this case is a giant machine that grows the babies in pods filled with "life

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1539
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English