Evil demon

The Genius malignus (Latin for " evil spirit " ) is in the philosophy of René Descartes ' an intellectual figure that led to the emergence of modern skepticism.

In the first of Meditations on First Philosophy ( 1641) Descartes developed the assumption that a Genius malignus bring him to believe that he probably possessed the sense organs with which he could perceive the res extensa the outside world. It does not close because of this, the possibility that findings are not pictures of reality, but deceptions, as it creates a skepticism about knowledge of the external world.

As a re-discovery of the genius malignus the brain - in - tank - argument ( engl. "brain in a vat" ), initially by David Malet Armstrong and John Jamieson Carswell Smart originated in the 20th-century philosophy formulated without skeptical intention, after the consciousness, the res cogitans, could also consist of a brain that reality vorspiegele themselves. The brain - in - tank - argument was eventually passed by Gilbert Harman to the thesis of general skepticism, according to which it is not possible to decide whether knowledge ( in its general form ) was at all possible.

Keith teachers walked off the conceptual model by the genius malignus by " Googols " evil aliens replaced.

A detailed analysis of the brain - in -tank problem provides Hilary Putnam. Evolving strong semantic arguments against the most classical variants of the brain - in -Tank hypothesis. According to Putnam so you can know that you are not a brain in a tank.