ABSTRACT
As is now fairly widely acknowledged, Descartes seeks to limit the scope of the Deceiver Hypothesis, in the Replies and even in later parts of the Meditations, to, in effect, non-self-evident ‘conclusions.’ He suggests, that is, that the Deceiver Hypothesis generates doubt only of those propositions that can come before the mind without being immediately clearly and distinctly perceived. There remain, then, a class of propositions-those which cannot come before the mind without being clearly and distinctly perceived-that evade the force even of the Deceiver Argument, and provide the basis for a non-circular defense, in the face of the Deceiver, of our (merely) demonstrative knowledge.
