Locke Versus Descartes Essay Sample

07/22/2021 | Atreyye C. | 2563 views

Locke and Descartes are two philosophers who both have very different opinions on the nature of reality. Locke believes in an empiricist approach, while Descartes has a rationalist mindset. Locke’s ideas were based more around empiricism than pure reason, whereas Descartes was a rationalist who believed that knowledge comes from one’s own thoughts. This essay will provide a brief overview of the differences between John Locke and Rene Descartes, two very influential philosophers who have impacted our society to this day.

Essay Example on Locke Versus Descartes

Introduction – Locke Versus Descartes

Locke and Descartes are two legendary philosophers who have different views and opinions regarding the subject matter of psychology and philosophy. The philosophers have differences of opinion as to how one should obtain knowledge and different aspect of the same.

The philosopher René Descartes has a rationalist perspective. He believes that everything in the world can be known through reason and deduction. The second philosopher is John Locke who also had a rationalist perspective but he believed in empiricism which means relying on sense experiences to come to knowledge about how things work or what they are like.

Descartes believes that one cannot comprehend what our senses urge us to express and what is real or fictional. Locke believes that whatever knowledge a person obtains in their life is from the experience that she possesses and nothing is new that happened in the life of the person.

Main Essay Body – Locke Versus Descartes

It is argued between different opinions of the philosophers and trying to prove their studies and theories to be superior to that of others. Aristotle advocated that knowledge is obtained from senses which Are highly opposed by Descartes and support other studies.

Aristotle believes that nothing can be obtained without senses and reiterate that there is nothing innate without intellect. Not only this, but Aristotle also believes that a kid is also led by its senses seeking benefits from it in understanding what is happening around.

Such senses help the person in avoiding bodily harm and with time, humans grow and learn that senses are the fundamental aspect in obtaining knowledge. Descartes believes that the fundamental truth of metaphysics which a person rejects possesses the senses and turns to intrinsic ideas. Descartes believes indication and that’s the reason it describes six meditation which relates to mind, matter, and infinite being that help the human to obtain knowledge.

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What are Descartes’ Meditations?

In Descartes’s philosophy, meditation describes the methods for people to withdraw from their senses. But before commencing this meditation, one should know its belief, sense, intellect, and power of its thought that is based on sight, hearing, tasting, smelling, and in short from senses. Descartes not only relies upon senses and what the sense in its deceptive manner reflects but also gives significance to rely on wisdom.

Several studies show the relationship between wisdom and intellect of the person and Descartes reaffirm that one should rely on its senses and work accordingly. The philosophy of Descartes focuses on the sense and intellect power of humans that help the same in acquiring experiences as well as knowledge.

He believes that whatever a person could dream and experience in dreaming seems to be perfectly normal when awake. When a person sees something and experience anything in its dream seem to be done less and no universal or standard indication clearly distinguished between less probably things or learn the difference between being in a dream or awake.

Moreover, an interesting fact is that Descartes believes and starts doubting its nature, as well as his own body and one, can dream anything in its dream because in such a condition the person remains in his unconscious state of mind. The person begins to think that a human body can change and start doubting its own body.

The person starts thinking that whether the existence of an external world exists or not. He believes in arithmetic, geometry, science, and other subjects but no subject can deceive the intellect or senses of any person, and to prove the same he describes that two plus three is always equivalent to five and a rectangle has three sides irrespective of its angles.

Furthermore, he starts doubting the creator of the universe whether God deceives him or not but ultimately he concludes that whatever God decides is good for the person. He states that it is not the good God but evil the monster that consistently deceiving him. This is all about the meditation first that concluded in the words of Descartes.

On the other hand, the second meditation according to Descartes is about the existence of God and how it influences the world and its related activities. He also explains that how he was influenced by nothing that exists in the world and there is something called an evil demon that is deceiving him. Descarte at the end, concludes that human exists because they think and God exist because without him no one would exist.

What is Locke’s theory against Descarte’s meditation?

Unlike, Locke defined the understanding and acquiring of knowledge from experiences and all such ideas can not be born out of anything. Such ideas reflect due to the experiences the person encountered and are entirely opposed to the philosophy of innate ideas. Some believe that certain ideas come into the mind of the person by birth but Locke believes that human barely use their natural impression and that can use natural faculties without using innate ideas.

Locke’s philosophy mainly focuses on how men attain all the knowledge and experiences without using innate impressions. He affirms that how men brought up something when welcome in the world and every human should accept what his senses firstly reflects. The philosopher believes that if it is all about the innate impression of a child or lunatic then the universe is running on a different track. And though children and lunatics are unable to know and consider about inmate truth so how they would perceive the same.

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Conclusion

Locke’s approach to the problem of knowledge was much more compatible with contemporary philosophy. Descartes’ epistemology has been largely abandoned by philosophers, who now find it difficult to reconcile his rationalism and empiricism. The idea that we are born into a world without any innate ideas is preposterous because there would be no way for us to learn anything at all if this were true. It also seems quite strange that our reason should work so well in some cases but fail miserably in others. It is clear that there are many different interpretations on what constitutes knowledge or truth which can make it difficult to decide who has the better argument.

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