Socrates & Descartes
July 11, 2006 § 8 Comments
We students of literature and philosophy are so fortunate to have the opportunity to read, review; analyze and discuss the written works of some of the greatest thinkers in Human history. Even in light of present day, where our scientific discoveries and technological advances have further evolved the civilized man, there are still fundamental principles of knowledge and thought rooted in the written works of great thinkers such as Socrates and Descartes. This essay will bring together and expound on the differences and similarities of these two great thinkers whom lived Worlds apart.
Socrates born 469 B.C. was inclined toward two particular branches of philosophy: ethics and epistemology. Ethics is the philosophy which seeks to understand the nature of morality (i.e., right and wrong). While Descartes also known as Cartesius; born in 1596, was a mathematician and philosopher. His methods of reason and analysis were utilized to contemplate metaphysics and epistemology as well. Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy which seeks to identify the “first principles” and being. Socrates and Descartes were two great minds from vastly different times in our history… Their differences not only exist in time but in thought also. Socrates was a philosopher of ethics. He studied human behavior to draw an answer to the question of right and wrong (morality). Even with his life at risk, his search to reveal the nature of morality persisted. This is best illustrated in Plato’s Apology when Socrates says,
“You are mistaken, my friend, if you think that a man who is worth anything ought to spend his time weighing up the prospects of life and death. He has only one thing to consider in performing any action; that is, whether he is acting rightly or wrongly, like a good man or a bad one” (qtd. in Plato).
Socrates boldly states that a man who is of any value only considers one thing, his present action, is it right or wrong? This differs from Descartes’ work in many ways, but the greatest difference is chiefly exhibited in Socrates’ passionate discourse on ethics and morality directed to an audience, as Descartes’ work carried a very personal undertone.
In the same manner Descartes’ work resulted in a few differences from Socrates. Firstly, the method in which their ideas were recorded, Descartes wrote his discoveries himself and these were kept virtually without blemish. However, Socrates’ work was exposed as a result of the writings of his followers like, Xenophon, Aristotle, Aristophanes and especially Plato. Secondly, Descartes’ primary branch of philosophy was metaphysics, concerning the study and identification of the “first principle” the self.
For example, in Descartes’ Discourse on Method Descartes concludes that since he is thinking he must exist when he claims,
“And noticing that this truth—I think, therefore I am—was so firm and so assured that all the most extravagant suppositions of the skeptics were incapable of shaking it, I judged that I could accept it without scruple as the first principle of the philosophy I was seeking” (Descartes).
Descartes feels that thinking is evidence of existence as his metaphysics is the study of the self. Unlike Socrates whose philosophy of ethics attempts to understand how man relates to others be it person, place or thing.
On the contrary, there is a branch of philosophy that both Socrates and Descartes share, and that is epistemology: the search for the origin, nature and materialization of knowledge. It seems to me that Socrates and Descartes came to the same conclusion concerning the origin of knowledge, which is that the origin of knowledge and all things coming forth from knowledge reside in God. I found this to be supported in text from both Plato’s Apology of Socrates and René Descartes Meditations on First Philosophy. Descartes sincerely attributes all of existence, knowledge and everything else as the creation of God when he writes,
“Be that as it may, there is fixed in my mind a certain opinion of long standing, namely that there exists a God who is able to do anything and by whom I, such as I am, have been created” (Descartes).
Descartes shared an unexpected excerpt of personal conviction that exposed his humaneness as well as his humility in light of brilliance. Likewise, Socrates suggests that wisdom comes from God when he says,
“But the truth of the matter, gentlemen, is pretty certainly this: that real wisdom is the property of God… The wisest of you men is he who has realized, like Socrates, that in respect of wisdom he is really worthless” (qtd. in Plato).
Both Descartes and Socrates alike are seekers however, ultimately do not claim any knowledge of their own but owe their progresses and attainments of certain knowledge to God.
In conclusion, I find that the differences of Socrates and Descartes exist more in mundane and subjective realities. Their lifestyles, cultures, time-periods and certain philosophical schools. However, it is in a deeper faculty of their work where the similarities exist. It is this deeper faculty which allow them to share in highest caliber of thought exercised in their philosophy. I find that both philosophers claim nothing of knowledge to be owned by them but resolve to God as the sole owner of knowledge and in the branch of philosophy which they share, epistemology, they agree that the origin of knowledge is God.