Rene Descarte v. Plato
Descartes and Socrates -- What Knowledge Is The concept of knowledge, what it is, what it means, and how it is gained, has been debated for literally centuries. Philosophers, historians, social scientists have questioned the components of knowledge and its acquisition and developed their individual theories based on the cultural and intellectual developments of their age. Many of the major ideas that are most often linked to the 18th-century French Enlightenment originated as a part of "Cartesianism," or the philosophy and mathematical ideas and methods developed by 17th-century philosopher Rene Descartes (1596-1650). While he is most famous for his cognito "I think, therefore I am," that proclamation is less than an accurate or meaningful statement as it relates to the reality of what Descartes believed to be the existence of humanity and humanity's understanding of what knowledge truly is. Descartes' "The Meditations" was published in Paris in 1641 and has come to generally be viewed as the most important of all of Descartes' works. It is in "The Meditations" that he best presents his metaphysical and epistemological premises in their entirety. He considers the problems of the sources and n
He did not formally "teach" in the fashion of other philosophers of his time. Such qualities exist only in the mind of an observer, and are then imposed onto the apple. In arguing that knowledge of the mental realm precedes knowledge of the material realm, Descartes argues that human senses alone cannot inform a person of the continuity of the two states of the wax since none of the qualities remains the same. Therefore, the mind, as the creator of thought, is much more accessible to belief, realization, and legitimization than the body. Much of Descartes' arguments rest on a distinction which became known as that between primary and secondary qualities. He cannot touch the bottom and cannot see the surface. It is the entity that determines what is and what is not and therefore has far more legitimacy than the simple, "mindless" body. Socrates' ultimate goal is always to discover, and lead his discussion partner or student, in discovering that which is true, good, universal. ------------------------------------------------------------------------**Bibliography**. In this position of unknowing discomfort, tinged with fear, he must discover the security one specific and unchangeable position from where he can determine how to proceed. In comparison, Descartes claims in "Meditation II" that the recognition of his omnipresent skepticism makes him similar to a swimmer suddenly thrown into deep water. When the philosopher has had such a vision, he has already experienced eternal life. Certainly, his most famous statement was that the "unexamined life was not worth living. As a result, death is no longer terrorizing, because Socrates knows he will live through it. In the course of his life he went through the necessary discipline until at the end he knew he had gained a glimpse of the meaning of life (Apology 320).
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