Ideas form very integral parts of philosophy. These ideas constitute a big proportion of how the body and the mind relate in certain situations. Plato and Descartes differ in some circumstances as both bring out opposing philosophical views in relation to the mind and meditation in forming ideas (William, 1996). The essay will try to outline the differences in Descartes and Plato views in comparison to reality and make rational comparisons.
Descartes and Platos’ Philosophy
According to Descartes, an individual cannot have the exact ideas of what are outside him except by using what already exists in the mind. Meditation is a state in which a person tries to collect his mind so as to acquire his innermost feeling about certain situations. In meditations an individual gets ideas from his innermost parts of the mind. Descartes argues that we have knowledge that is associated with the physical world (William, 1996).
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Meditation is very crucial especially when one wants to flee from perceptions already created by the mind. This is because meditation enables an individual to acquire his innermost feelings as opposed to the things that have been acquired from experience and the environment. Therefore, is key to note that meditation initiates the sense of natural thinking and reasoning out situations just the way they are. This is opposed to forming judgments according to what is already known about the situation. Prejudice closes the mind of an individual from discovering new ideas and from a fresh thinking process.
According to William (1996), Socrates’ apology describes Plato’s interpretation and recollection of the trial imposed on Socrates in 399 BC . In the conversation, Socrates tries to explain who exactly he is, what kind of life that he exactly led and why he led the life. Socrates was judged according to sophistication and physicality. This clearly indicates that the judges were made as a result of the general prejudices that surrounded his life over the years. According to the apology, these prejudices and perceptions had a very impact to an extent that Socrates almost forgot whom he was. They were expressed in an intense and emotional way to the extent that his own mind almost became confused of his personality.
It is natural for us to acquire knowledge of what surrounds us through experience. Basic laws of nature and physics constitute the knowledge of the basic objects and the general principles. This is what causes perceptions and prejudices (William, 1996). According to social psychologist Anaximander, whatever that exists in the surrounding directs all and because of their indestructible and immortal nature, they can be used to justify untrue circumstances and thus injustice. This is what forms the basis for my sympathy to Socrates and Descartes as they fell victim to prejudice formed from perception.
Socrates reiterates that the senses are very deceitful. This is because the senses never believe in anything other than what they observe. According to Plato’s allegory of the cave, human beings always use their senses. This makes the human beings to be likened to the prisoners who are in a cave who are only exposed to shadows and objects they can cannot see.
Human beings cannot not withdraw from their senses because of what nature has created in their minds. Just like in the parable of the cave whereby the prisoners cannot see the real objects that create the shadows, we always mistaken appearance for reality (William, 1996). What has made human beings be tied to their senses is the believe that nothing real creates what we see. The symposium by Plato indicates that love can be determined by speeches taken from men having a party in a house. Plato also comes out to show the strength of senses in The Republic which is a dialogue introduced by Socrates.
Descartes explains that the physical environment is very essential in the acquisition of knowledge (William, 1996). The knowledge acquired in this sense should be modeled using the general principles of what exists physically. This is very essential in the understanding Socrates’ apology in relation to what we perceive after using the senses. The essence of Descartes is to show the necessity or the need to penetrate behind what we can just see. Everything should not be interpreted in the way it is just seen or the way it appears to be.
The most essential step towards acting beyond perception is doubt. Doubt can enable a human being to sit back and start discerning about something in a diverse way. This thinking helps in breaking the barriers that are created by perception or previous experience. According to my View, doubt is very useful and essential (William, 1996).
In doubt, an individual initiates the process of generation of new ideas. These ideas tend to be original and accurate. This is because they combine some aspects of experience, perception and reality. In the process of idea generation, meditation is very essential as it gives the mind a favorable environment to create diverse views to a situation. The creativity behind meditation creates room for discovery beyond any prevailing doubt and thus unearthing truth (William, 1996).
In conclusion, Descartes finds truth that really fits that definition through knowledge. This is through the reduction of specific knowledge to knowledge that is general. Although Descartes can be seen to be more sophisticated as compared to Plato, he creates improvements to Plato’s thoughts through fixing the reduction of thought and reality by Plato.
- William, L. (1996). Philosophy of Mind. Oxford. Blackwell Publishers.
