Both Plato and Descartes are similar men when it comes to the quest of knowledge. Both men believe knowledge is the product of our own reasoning and understanding of the world around us. They are both distinctive on how to answer the big question, “What is knowledge?” Plato’s way of demonstrating knowledge is his most famous examples of the Allegory of the Cave and The Divided Line, which uses the idea of sense perception. Socrates/Plato set the scenario in which there are prisoners who've been kept since childhood in a cave. Being chained, immobile, and facing a wall, there is a raised walkway and behind it there was a lit fire. A person of the walkway had objects that could be identified if seen, even in a shadow reflected from the fire.
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To begin, he “destroys” everything that was taught, or he has known and begins his search with a clean table. Unlike Plato, Descartes foundations started with the individual, rather than concerning the shadows of the outside world or reality. Even though we perceive thing through our senses, he acknowledges that at times our senses can deceive us. Take for example when you are driving down a road and you seem to have seen a puddle, once you get closer you realize there was never a puddle to begin with. Continuing his search for knowledge, by analyzing his dreams in Mediation II, but because at times we have vivid dream, he still doesn’t know the distinction between what’s a dream and what’s real. An interesting, and something I liked about Descartes is he knows one thing is real; himself. He says in Meditation II, “I am certain that I am; and hense I must be careful that I do not imprudely take some other object in place of myself.” This concept was know as Cogito Ergo Sum, which basically says that for him to be asking questions about the nature of his own existence it means something must exist in order to do that mentally. Descartes and Plato were two philosophers i truly enjoyed a lot. Keep in mind, the both of them saw opinions as doubtful and questionable. Finally the must be certain, because that is how you calculate
To begin, he “destroys” everything that was taught, or he has known and begins his search with a clean table. Unlike Plato, Descartes foundations started with the individual, rather than concerning the shadows of the outside world or reality. Even though we perceive thing through our senses, he acknowledges that at times our senses can deceive us. Take for example when you are driving down a road and you seem to have seen a puddle, once you get closer you realize there was never a puddle to begin with. Continuing his search for knowledge, by analyzing his dreams in Mediation II, but because at times we have vivid dream, he still doesn’t know the distinction between what’s a dream and what’s real. An interesting, and something I liked about Descartes is he knows one thing is real; himself. He says in Meditation II, “I am certain that I am; and hense I must be careful that I do not imprudely take some other object in place of myself.” This concept was know as Cogito Ergo Sum, which basically says that for him to be asking questions about the nature of his own existence it means something must exist in order to do that mentally. Descartes and Plato were two philosophers i truly enjoyed a lot. Keep in mind, the both of them saw opinions as doubtful and questionable. Finally the must be certain, because that is how you calculate