Similarities between Allegory by The Cave and The Six mediations on the First Philosophy. Plato and Descartes are by far the two most renowned philosophers amongst others of their age and era. These two individuals, despite being born in two different time scales, had the same perception of reality as it is. Plato was born earlier, compared to Descartes, in the third century BC; while Descartes was born much later in the late sixteenth century.
However, the two share one thing, that is—they both were philosophers who sought to find out the ideal being within them. Plato was an old philosopher and is credited for publishing books and other philosophical articles. Allegory by the Cave is one of the widely read and used books of Plato. On the other hand, Descartes had much to do with his surroundings and thus mediated on philosophies that had been stated by earlier philosophers, such as Plato, Socrates, and Aristotle. By so doing, he came up with the popular book Meditations on the First Philosophy. Despite the difference in time, reading through the two sets of writing shows that there are similarities in them.
To begin with, the two principles believe in a benevolent God. Descartes’ view of religion acknowledges that there is a supernatural being present when one is born. As the child grows, those in their surroundings pass the information and religious beliefs down to them. This process recurred from one generation to the next. As a result, the matured child is in a position to believe in the same notion as the elder generation believed. A similar view is also seen in Plato’s perception of religion. Plato carries on the knowledge that he attained from his teachers, such as Socrates, to his students.
Descartes and Plato also share a view on the idea of a Utopian society. Descartes’ view is that the best means of acquiring knowledge is by perceiving clarity. He also goes further and describes his idea of a Utopian society as that which allows imaginations, senses, and thinking to improve despite the physical state of the mind. He also states that there should be consistent encouragement of mental faculties to improve one’s thinking, imagination, and senses.
Plato’s view on a Utopian society is slightly different in the sense that it is aligned more towards religion compared to Descartes’ view, which is a rationalized sort of thinking. Plato states that in an ideal society, there are laws but no lawyers for offenders. This may seem to be practically impossible in real life. To bring his point to conformity with real life, he argues that the human soul is bound by God to do only that which is good. Thus, society is only composed of people whose will is to take good actions.
Attaining the deepest state of spirituality and peek of good is a factor that both Descartes and Plato concur. In the same view and reasoning as Plato, Descartes understands that there is a need to go through perception and reason out one’s understanding before reaching out for the right conclusion. Simply put, one should not come to a conclusion before thinking critically about the repercussions of the decision. Reasoning is the best way of making sound conclusions according to both Six Meditations on First Philosophy and Allegory by the Cave. Without prior reasoning before coming to conclusions, one can be misguided by their decisions.
The repercussions that follow are just but a result of the decisions people make. Descartes and Plato agree that without reasoning and cautiously analyzing the effects of the decisions that one makes, then it will take as much more time to repair the damages incurred. Reasoning, they claim, is a major source of building up knowledge. Without reasoning, knowledge cannot be developed or advanced.
There is also an agreement based on Descartes’ view of imagination and perception and Plato’s view on the same. Descartes states that imagination is what one can see with the eyes inside their mind, whereas, perception is one of the several options of things one sees in their mind when one imagines an object that has been mentioned yet does not know it. Plato also shares this view but in a different way.
He says that perception is what one thinks is the form of something, whereas, imagination is the actual form of something, that one is aware of, yet you cannot physically see it. Descartes explains imagination by using a triangle; the three-sided object whereas Plato explains it using the shadows of prisoners. Descartes explains perception using a chiliagon, while Plato explains it using the names the prisoners give to the shadows of the puppets.
From the two scholarly materials by Plato and Descartes, it is evident that the two philosophers share the same views on human perception and knowledge in general. Their books show a similarity in their opinions but a different way of expressing the shared line of thought. Despite the difference in their time of existence, Descartes and Plato share the same reasoning and understanding largely. However, when critically thought of, readers can realize that Descartes offers a new way of thinking considered modern philosophy.