The Influence Of Feelings On Our Reality: Plato And Descartes
Every moment in our daily lives we trust our senses to tell us the truth. We tend to believe what we touch, smell, see, hear, and taste, but do we ever think about the fact that our senses may be lying to us? If we begin to doubt our senses, can we really be sure about what is real and what is not. Similarly, to this, in a passage derived from Rene Descartes, he questions if beliefs are possible to have if they come from the senses. On the other hand, Plato also believed that our reality cannot be found through our senses. He proved this through the allegory of the cave and further discussions from his readings. Finally, in my opinion, I neither agree nor disagree with both philosophers, since their ideas are different but are reasonable enough for what they believe, in and I believe that everyone had their own opinions on this topic.
To begin with Descartes; he argues that both our sensations and experiences can be doubted, so it is pure reason and not the senses that helps form the basis of truth and what reality really is. He starts by asking himself, “How can it be denied that these hands or this whole body is mine.” He then continues to compare himself to those who are mentally disturbed, saying that they sometimes find themselves in a place or see things that are not there, and he asks once again about what makes our perceptions an accurate reality, but, for a mentally disturbed individual, it is inaccurate. In his first and second meditations, he claims that our beliefs can be doubted because the senses we have could simply be an illusion. He continues to argue that our ordinary experiences and views of the world cannot give a firm foundation on which all beliefs and knowledge is based. We are often put off from the fact that what we have learned and what our senses tell us is uncertain. Descartes then gives us an example that even if some type of higher power deceives us about our beliefs, there is one belief that we can all still be certain about and that is that we are thinking. Even if we try to doubt this belief, it just continues to prove that we are thinking. However, Plato, on the other hand, claimed that true reality is not found through the senses. He believed that the senses cannot be trustworthy and that there is a higher realm of existence accessible only through using our intellect that very well goes beyond the senses. Universal forms exist in this higher realm. We can sense objects which exhibit these universals. Plato referred to universals as forms and believed that they are true reality. Through developing our intellect, we can attempt to gain a greater understanding of reality. Plato argues that the soul is a universal, pure, one-substance, unchanging, and immortal. The body itself is a compound substance, its ever changing, and mortal. Its interference with the soul and its ability to sense reality.
Within both philosophers’ ideas on our perceptions and bodily senses, there are some places where both agree and disagree, such as; having the idea that our senses are not trustworthy and is always changing, as well as the idea that our mind is separate from the body. However, their approach to this problem is different. On one hand, Descartes concludes that we can doubt the existence of our body but not mind, since we are always thinking, and you cannot doubt thinking, therefore we exist. Plato, however, concludes that the objects we sense exhibit universals, and these universals are forms of true reality. Plato also uses the allegory of the cave, that the physical world takes the form of the cave in which us beings are trapped from the very start of our lives. While being in this state, we are stationery and cannot move. Therefore, we tend to only perceive our sensory things, such as seeing shadows and hearing sounds. The world of light in this story represents the realms of ideas. The person then looks up to the sun as his eyes grow accustomed to it and tries to understand what the ultimate source of life is. Yet the real lesson behind this story is that that person now has responsibility to those who are still stuck within the cave and to bring them into the light, but the people are uncertain and cannot trust the outside world, which is reality. Their senses have bound them to their place, and they don’t realize the truth of the reality.
In my opinion, I do not agree nor disagree with any of the conclusions made from Descartes and Plato. I believe this because both of their opinions are reasonable. My reason for the opinion given is that, out of all these theories, we can never be sure about which one is true, and which is not. One thing both theories have in common is the idea that our perceptions, and how we view things through objects or our senses, may not actually be real. I believe, as human beings, some of us tend to struggle with wanting to know why we exist, but at the same time, we don’t want to give up the comfort of believing what may seem to be true. Although for many people, the theories presented by Descartes and Plato may seem unlikely, the more we tend to question what reality is, the more theories we ourselves create based on what we perceive. We cannot really rely on the theories on reality only because everyone perceives it in their own way. Not everyone can have the same views and theories on what reality is and what existence means. Some of us might believe that God plays a really important role and influences it while some of us might believe that nothing exists and everything might just be an illusion, but someone else might say everything they are seeing in the moment or have seen before is real. In these opinions, no one is wrong. Our individual views on what reality is to us is personal. And our perceptions are certainly not the same as anyone else’s. Therefore, I neither agree nor disagree with the theories presented by both Descartes and Plato.
In conclusion, I think both ideas presented by Descartes and Plato are very reasonable to believe in. They both display similar conclusions, but their approaches are much different from each other. Overall, in my opinion, I believe everyone has their own idea and approach to what reality is and it is better to question our existence and reality rather than ignore it.
