Plato and Descartes
Plato concept of innate goodness and Descartes descriptions of human reasoning for being good both provide a foundation for man's need to better understand the basic and spiritual goodness found within human nature. In Plato's Republic, he provides many anthologies that help one to discover their own goodness. Descartes gives many logical reasons within his work, Meditations, that help to explain why the human mind reflects God's natural ability to be good, but when human error occurs, the ability to have a pure mind disappears. This paper will discuss the similarities of Plato's and Descartes' concept of man's ability to be good.
Book VI of The Republic defines Plato's concept of "good" and provides many various descriptions to help guide others to better understand the nature of what it means to be "good." Plato's idea of "being good" eventually will lead to an "end in itself" and thus becomes the basic reasoning that is used to determine people's actions in various situations (Bloom, 1991).
Plato explains that everyone is basically good however; they may become influenced by outside reasoning that will hinder their judgment and create bad situations. When one searched deep enough, it is discovered that good ill prevail over the evil within.
Descartes provided insight within his writings of Meditations.
He explains that while reasoning and mathematical logic provided many answers to principal concerns of philosophy, the existence of the human soul provides a basis for the truth. He also believed that there is a relationship between man's body and his soul creating an inner desire to remain good and...
He pursues this by beginning to doubt of everything, even his own existence. He presents his reestablishment of reality as a series of proofs, like proving a mathematical formula. What is the first conclusion he reaches in this search? What is the second? Descartes first finding is that he exists because he is a thinking being, hence his famous statement: 'I think, therefore I am.' The second is that his mind
He performs his search through the use of four tools or steps: accepting as true only what can be proven by facts, division of every question into manageable parts, beginning with simple issues and moving to the more complex and ultimately, the review of the facts frequently enough to maintain the whole argument. D- What is the first conclusion he reaches in this search? What is the second? In his search,
Plato, Descartes, And the Matrix The Matrix can be compared with Plato and Descartes. While that might seem like a very odd comparison, there are many similarities. In each scenario, there is the concept of reality and how to determine what is real and what is not. While it may seem as though it is easy to tell if something is real or not real, the truth is more complicated. People
The Matrix and the Search for Truth In Descartes’ Meditations, he gives license to the idea that doubt can actually be a way of beginning one’s movement towards truth, just as doubt regarding the flickering of images on the cave wall by the inhabitant of Plato’s Cave begins his movement of turning around and seeing the outside sun and beginning the climb upward towards truth. Descartes seemingly encourages his philosopher-reader to
Descartes argues that the mind and the body must be two different things since he knows the mind exists but knows no such thing about the body. Spell out this argument. What's wrong with it, if anything? Give a counterexample to the principle implied here. Are other philosophers that we have read drawing conclusions about what the mind must be like based on what we know about the mind or how
This is indeed an absolutely profound concept in that it can't help but support the idea of the autonomous individual, existing in connection to thought. The truth of these emotions, be them good or bad, speak to the authenticity of the self. There's a notion of realness -- of the self that is a facet of the genuine, as emotions and desires are founded upon the genuine. This notion
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