The Intent of Bouwsma's "Descartes' Evil Genius" Bouwsma's essay critiques Descartes' use of the evil demon in his Meditations on First Philosophy through the creation of two situations in which the "evil genius" attempts to use his powers for their express purpose, that of deception. Bouwsma conveniently admits the existence of "four or five clear and distinct ideas" and goes on to show that the evil genius is capable of deceiving mankind about everything else, specifically sensory perceptions. Bouwsma's main point in taking this approach is to express his view that Descartes' hypothesis that one might be deceived by an evil demon is incoherent. Bouwsma's second "adventure" is supposed to indicate that once there becomes no way for one to distinguish between reality and illusion, the illusion becomes reality. This suggests that Descartes' supposition that our senses are always mistaken is in itself a form of trickery, because what one can hold, see, touch, smell, and so forth is reality, no matter whether the progenitor of the "illusion" is the evil demon or God. The two "adventures" gradually lead to Bouwsma's point by beginning with the degree of influence and power exerted by the evil demon. Bouwsma himself admits that his first adventure is a "transparent case of deception" in which the word illusion will be used in a "clear and familiar application" which is intended to demonstrate his version of how Descartes' evil demon may be expected to deceive. This first adventure shows an ordinary illusion, a thin illusion which consists of images that can fool someone but which can be distinguished from reality eventually. The fictional young man, Tom, is immediately struck by the fact that the bowl of flowers he is approaching are no longer flowers, but are instead made of paper. He soon recognizes that everything appears to be made of paper, and all is thus illusion. Tom experiences this illusion, but he is not deceiv...
