Descartes Vs Locke

Both Descartes and Locke attempt to clarify what the self is and how the psyche and body are connected. It is clear what Descartes supposes he (the self) is. In his Second Meditation, he states that he is a ``thinking thing'' (Descartes, 82), a thing that considers: ``doubts, comprehends, confirms, denies, is eager, is unwilling, and furthermore envisions and has tangible discernments'' (Descartes, 83). Not exclusively does Descartes view the self as a reasoning thing, yet he trusts that is his substance (Descartes, 114).

Descartes makes a critical refinement between the brain or thinking substance (res cogitans) and the body or amplified substance (res extensa). He accepts there is a connection between the spirit (brain) and body through …show more content…
a substance that considers'' (Locke, 124). Locke thinks the spirit and body are isolated, yet related. Additionally like Descartes, he thinks about the self as a thing that considers. Yet, he doesn't concur with Descartes that his ``essence comprises exclusively in the way that [he is] a reasoning thing'' (Descartes, 114). Rather, Locke believes that the self is both the brain and its body, not the ``thinking or reasonable being distant from everyone else'' (Locke, 138). Not at all like Descartes who considers thought at a given minute, Locke goes ahead to give a record of memory and clarifies character (similarity of self) regarding progression of awareness (Locke, …show more content…
Descartes says that the self is, and is just, the reasoning soul. Conversely, Locke says the self is both the spirit and the body. Locke's record of character appears not to be straightforwardly in strife with Descartes' (just like the case for their hypotheses of natural thoughts). It is important that from numerous points of view Locke's record of character seems, by all accounts, to be a superset of that offered by Descartes, instead of a totally isolate