seth nenstiel

I am going to have fun with this. Anyone else want to take a crack at it?

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The twentieth-century English philosopher Bertrand Russell constructed a new evil demon skeptical fantasy. Unlike in Descartes’s skeptical fantasy, in Russell’s skeptical fantasy, the outside world is in fact real (not a dream) — the sun is real, the Earth is real, your hands are real, your house is real, etc. However, Russell asks us to suppose that these real things were all created by an evil demon a mere five minutes ago! That is to say, five minutes and one second ago, nothing in the universe existed except for the evil demon himself. Then with a wave of his hand he created the universe as we know it – stars, planets, animals, plants, and people. And here is the kicker – when he made people, he made some look old and some look young (even though, of course, every person is in fact a mere five minutes old!) And moreover, the demon filled people’s brains with fake memories, as if they were memories of ten minutes ago, a year ago, ten years ago, even eighty years ago (he put these fake memories in people whom he created to look at least eighty-plus years old), so that people will think they are more than five minutes old. The demon also created cities and monuments, as well as history books and videos filled with fake reports and fake video footage of a past that in fact never existed. In short, according to Russell’s skeptical fantasy, the world, while real, is only five minutes old. The appearance of a past beyond five minutes ago is actually an elaborate hoax created by the evil demon.

Answer the following questions:

What are some examples of beliefs of yours that would be undermined by this skeptical fantasy, and why? What are some examples of beliefs of yours that would NOT be undermined by this skeptical fantasy, and why? Is there any way you can prove that this fantasy is not actually true? Why or why not? If you think you cannot prove this fantasy is false, can you at least give some reasons (albeit reasons that fall short of certain proof) for refusing to believe it? What might some of these reasons be?