Plato vs Descartes

Both philosophers have their ideas on what is ideal. Reason is at the core of their teachings. In René Descartes’ Meditations on First Philosophy, he enumerated six meditations which served as the threshold of modern Western philosophy.

In it, Descartes discusses several of Aristotelian doctrines and questions its basic principles such as the necessity of senses to our thinking. Descartes examines the Aristotelian concept that all knowledge stems from the senses and that mental states merely resemble them. Descartes did not agree with this view. He believes that perceptions from the senses are unreliable and that reasoning by the deduction is the right method to arrive at the right conclusion.

Descartes began his Meditations with the idea of skepticism. Then, he slowly showed the importance of recognizing senses and imagination as part of the mental processes. Descartes made a controversial claim that the mind and body do not have anything in common. He arrived at this conclusion by observing that our mind is made to think and the body merely extends our thoughts.

A number of philosophers support Descartes ideas but his theory on the mind-body link is still controversial even to this day. A number of advocates of mind-body link believe that the mind greatly affects the body as opposed to Descartes separate function of mind and body and that the one could not affect the other.

His view on religion is equally thought-provoking. He believes the perception of God is innate, which means it was there by the time we were born and must be put there by a Higher Being. Descartes just like Plato believes in the presence of God, a benevolent God, as he termed it.

Since God is benevolent, then we can rely on the reality our senses provide us because God provided us with a mind and senses that do not deceive us. This argument could be seen as flawed and subject to contention but through this, Descartes firmly established the concept of acquiring knowledge through the use of senses or perception and deduction. That reason could be the only way to attain knowledge.

Descartes idea of Utopian society would probably be one where the improvement of thinking, senses and imagination or, the mental faculties is encouraged. Being a rationalist, Descartes believe that clarity of perceptions of the mind is the best way to gain knowledge. The information derived from the senses merely helps us to live in a practical manner.