The evil demon, also known as malicious demon[1] and evil genius[2], is a concept in Cartesian philosophy.In his 1641 Meditations on First Philosophy, Descartes imagines that an evil demon, of "utmost electricity and cunning has hired all his energies for you to mislead me." This evil demon is imagined to offer a complete illusion of an outside international, so that Descartes can say, "I shall suppose that the sky, the air, the earth, colorations, shapes, sounds and all outside matters are simply the delusions of desires 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 actually have all this stuff."
Some Cartesian pupils opine that the demon is likewise omnipotent, and thus able to altering arithmetic and the fundamentals of logic, although omnipotence of the evil demon would be opposite to Descartes' speculation, as he rebuked accusations of the evil demon having omnipotence.[3][4]
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