 Some commentators take these passages to introduce two separate deceivers – distinguishing the evil genius (mauvais génie) from the deceiving God (cf. Gouhier 1937, 163). But this introduces needless complication without sufficient textual justification. The deceptions of both deceivers derive from having supreme power, while lacking in goodness. And note that Descartes expresses ambivalence as to whether even to refer to a deceiver as “God”: while invoking hyperbolic doubt, the Second Meditation references the deceiver as “a God, or whatever I may call him” (AT 7:24, CSM 2:16). In any case, a single deceiver hypothesis will hereafter be assumed, referring to it by its popular designation, the “Evil Genius Doubt.”