Compare and Contrast Plato and Decsartes Essay

Descartes and Plato be two of the to the highest degree influential thinkers at heart philosophy. The emblem of the spelunk and dogmatic motion are also two of the most famous arche pillowcases within philosophy. Plato at the time of indite the countermine fabrication was trying to resist the growing influence of the Sophist philosophers who forwarditised semantics and rhetoric all over truth.1 Descartes by introducing radical scepticism to philosophy was challenging traditional bookworm philosophy which had dominated the philosophy for many another(prenominal) centuries. While both pieces of writing are separated by different ages of time and space, they share many similarities as well as fundamental differences. This essay pull up stakes exploit to compare and contrast these two bodies of work by commencement exercisely explaining what is Descartes agreementatic doubt and Platos Allegory of the cave before finally examining the similarities and differences betwix t them in the final paragraph of analysis. Descartes in his first meditation introduces the concept of Radical doubt which similarly places suspicion on the senses and the appearance of things. This involves denudation away all ones beliefs and preconceived notions in align to find the foundational bedrock of knowledge in which all sciences could then grow.Descartes begins his first meditation by puffing doubt on all his beliefs, if a belief croupe be even slightly doubted it must(prenominal) be discarded. He wants to reject as absolutely sham anything in which I could imagine the least amount of doubt3 this is called radical scepticism where all beliefs must be altercated. Through this experiment Descartes conceded that the animal(prenominal) senses are not to be trusted as they have lead ond him before, this is known as sensory double-dealing and this revelation forces him to doubt any beliefs about the outdoor(a) land and knowledge that is gathered by the five senses. His examination also reveals that dreams republics sack be difficult todistinguish between waking life, this has happened before where he ideal he was in bed but wasnt. Henceforth one cannot rattling know if they are awake observing earth or asleep(predicate) enjoying a dream, this is known as the dream hypothesis. Descartes also uncovers the evil fiend hypothesis whereby all external reality observed may be just an illusion that is perpetrated by an evil devil follow doneking to deceive him, also there is the problem that all previous memories about oneself could hardly just be imagination and not grounded in any reality.The system of radical doubt leads Descartes into murky territory where he cannot believe in the existence of anything at all. This thankfully is changed when he discovers the cogito I think thence I am, his starting line point which saves him from uncertainty, allowing him to strengthen that he exists. In Platos allegory of the cave, there are prison ers who are locked up within the depths of a cave. All day long, they are situated in motility of a wall and behind them is a fire which reflects shadows on the wall. unknown to the prisoners, there are puppeteers who use the firelight to reflect shadows of their puppets upon the wall while qualification noises the truth would be literally nothing but the shadows. The prisoners are unconscious of this illusion and mistakenly believe these shadows are real images. One day, a prisoner is released from his chains and allowed to walk freely about the cave. Although it is confusing for him to see the puppets and fire, he is forced to accept this clearer version of reality and eventually ascents through the cave, spending a day and night under the sun and the stars. As he becomes familiar with the creative activity above, he realises the sun is the giver of light, how it casts shadows and how his prior life in the cave was an entire illusion.This newfound enlightenment Plato remarks get out prevent him from ever regressing to the life in cave, nor will his grey-haired inmates believe him if he tried to free him, instead they would put him to death5 This able awakening will cause the inmate to grasp the idea of good, the staring(a) form which will urge him to act rationally in public or private life6. Ultimately Plato suggests the inmate should return to his old friends and sample to help them. The cave comparison is concerned with the human condition and its inadequacy of enlightenment, for Plato the prisoners represent ordinary citizens who hold sham beliefs (shadows), reality is dictated to them by their senses (appearance of things) allowing them to be easily manipulated. Ignorance is then symbolised by darkness and theintellect and curtilage is symbolised by the light. The journey of the inmate from darkness to light is a illustration for education which allows one to progress from the ignorance in the depths of the cave to the intellectual plai ns of the edify one in the right(prenominal) world.The outer world symbolises true knowledge, the actualisation of eternal forms while the cave again illustrates the world of appearance and false beliefs, Woozley writes most men without knowing it live in this shadow world9 The cave analogy and Descartes systematic doubt have more in common. Both are concerned with the illusory nature of the senses and external reality, for Plato people place too much emphasis on the senses, on the appearance of things as illustrated in by the shadows on the wall, this leads them to hold false beliefs and to be easily misled, only by entering the realm of archetype can people free themselves by gaining knowledge and becoming enlightened. Descartes through the systematic doubt also maintains that external reality cannot be in truth known the sensory deception and evil hellion hypothesis cast doubt on the authenticity of the outside world. Indeed the evil demon hypothesis is an almost identical scenario to that of the prisoners whose sensory perception is distorted by the shadow wielding puppeteers. Only through the read/write head or intellect can an individual overcome the illusory nature of the senses, it allows the prisoner to access the outside world to gain enlightenment and help his fellow inmates while for Descartes the head word by way of the cogito is the one thing that cannot be doubted which through it allows him prove the existence of the outside world in his later meditations.The cave is an analogy which illustrates how people can possess false consciousness and how through intellectual and knowledge one can overcome this while systematic doubt is an instruction on how to discard false beliefs, the ascent through the cave into the intellectual world is the finishing point for Plato while the cogito for Descartes is a starting point for further investigation. The two authors also differ on the type of philosophy employed in their argument. Plato insists th at after the ascent , the prisoner will experience the idea of the good the lord of light in the gross world, and the immediate source of reason and truth in the intellectual10 the good then is the highest point of knowledge and represents Platos philosophy of absolute types or forms known as idealism, Descartes through highlighting the sensory, dream and demon hypothesisillustrates how the external world cannot be relied upon as a grounding for true knowledge, but the cogito is a starting point, the attempt to find catch beliefs that allow a foundation for further knowledge to be rest upon is known as Foundationalism which is credited to Descartes.In conclusion, both Descartes and Plato in their attempts to challenge the prevailing doctrine of their respective times introduced two of the most influential concepts in the world of Philosophy. Descartes through his examination of systematic doubt uncovers the limitations of the physical senses in acquiring knowledge and introduce s further challenges to understanding external reality with the dream, memory and evil demon hypothesis. Only through the mind simply can one grasp the nature of reality starting with the cogito. in addition Plato is concerned with the appearance of things, how the senses can deceive us and humanity exchangeable the inmates in the cave can live in a state of ignorance or darkness if they dont use the power of the mind to acquire knowledge and reason. Only through using the intellect can humanity gather true knowledge and escape the darkness in the cave. For both the intellect is the only means for gathering true knowledge, the senses are illusory. Descartes systematic doubt and cogito provide the foundational starting point for the sciences while the cave allegory offers advocates a way of life for humanity to feign the world of ignorance and seek true knowledge so that those who acquire it will return to the cave and help their fellow man.Works CitedAnnas, Julias. An Introductio n to Platos state. freshly York Oxford University Press Cottingham, John. Descartes Meditations on First Philosophy. New York Cambridge University Press, 2013 Cottingham, John. Ed. Ray Monk. Descartes Philosophy of Mind. capital of the United Kingdom Phoenix Publishers, 1997 Plato. The Allegory of the cave. Week 5 HandoutWoozley, Anthony. Platos Republic A philosophical commentary. London MacMillan Publishers, 1989