Descartes Who Are You - 1051 Words

The Brains SOCRATES: Where am I? Am I finally in heavenly realm? DESCARTES: Who are you? And where are we? SOCRATES: I am Socrates. The last thing I remember is taking hemlock and dying. DESCARTES: Are you for real? I must be dreaming†¦ On a shelf in the lab, lies two vats of formaldehyde, one containing the brain of Socrates, and the other containing the brain of Rene Descartes. The two brains are wired up to each other so that they can communicate with each other about their current situation. As for Socrates, he would wonder if he is finally in heavenly realm, sometimes called â€Å"Platonic Heaven† and I believe that he would be happy about his current situation, not having any senses, or bodily cravings and needs. Because separating†¦show more content†¦At the same time, I do understand that the brain is still the ‘physical’ part of the body, which makes Socrates not happy, but I still believe that he would at least not be upset, because even though the brain is part of the impure ‘body’, it does not have any senses or needs to distract Socrates from focusing on The Forms. And I am assuming that the brain must be dead, it cannot survive by itself without the other organs, which makes more sense that Socrates would be happy because he believed that the death is nothing but the separation of the body and the soul. As for Descartes, I think that he would not be happy because he cannot sense anything. He claimed that he is a ‘thinking thing’. He said, â€Å"A thing that doubts, understands, affirms, denies, wills, refuses, and that also imagines and senses (Descartes, 20).† From here, we can see that he did not reject the role of the senses and that his senses are part of who he is. And I also think he would not be happy because even though Descartes would agree with Socrates that the body and the soul are two separate substances and that the body is easily deceived by the sense perceptions, and that pure knowledge is an attainable goal, but he didn’t necessarily claimed that it would be only after death, which Socrates did. Descartes believed that it is possible to erase all previously held beliefs and knowledge and let go of the influence of the body causing on our minds. And by doing this, we can pursue the realShow MoreRelatedAn Analysis of Descartes’ First Meditation Essay example1448 Words   |  6 Pages13th, 2012 An Analysis of Descartes’ First Meditation In Descartes’ First Meditation, Descartes’ overall intention is to present the idea that our perceptions and sensations are flawed and should not be trusted entirely. His purpose is to create the greatest possible doubt of our senses. 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Secondly, I will explain, in detail, the arguments that Descartes makes and how he comes to the conclusionRead MoreDescartes Meditations On First Philosophy1712 Words   |  7 PagesDescartes’ Meditations on First Philosophy (1641) contains six Meditations. In the first two of these Descartes addresses doubt and certainty. By the end of the second Meditation Descartes establishes the possibility of certainty by concluding that he is a â€Å"thinking thing† and that this is beyond doubt. Having established the possibility of certainty, Descartes attempts to prove the existence of God. The argument he present s in the Third Meditation for the existence of God has been nicknamed theRead MoreInnate Ideas Essay653 Words   |  3 Pagesin philosophy. Sometimes, these philosophers agree on ideas or sometimes they make their own assumptions. There are two philosophers who had different ideas concerning where innate ideas come from and how we get these types of ideas. Rene Descartes and John Locke were these two philosophers with the opposing argument on innate ideas. The place where Descartes discusses his views were in the Meditations on First Philosophy and Lockes argument is located in An Essay Concerning Human UnderstandingRead MoreDescartes Doubt And Crime1317 Words   |  6 Pages Descartes Re-visited Doubt and Crime Kirsten Besheer, in â€Å"Descartes’ Doubts: Physiology and the First Meditation,† makes the caution that â€Å"many commentators dismiss the First Meditation with a scant summary usually involving key words like ‘dreams’ and ‘doubt.’ This being the case, I am not surprised that the rest of the Meditations have remained opaque to them†(55). What Besheer is warning against, specifically, is an uncritical examination of Descartes. For, as the years continue to distant the