Locke Vs Descartes

Each and every philosopher met with criticism, not only during their lives, but also posthumously. One of Plato’s chief critics was Aristotle. Aristotle was a student of Plato who enrolled in Plato’s academy. Aristotle questioned much of what was presented to him. Aristotle’s work was focused more on science and observation as opposed to Plato’s work which focused more on mathematics. He disagreed about the different contributions each individual makes to society as a whole, focusing more on individual contribution rather than collectivism. Aristotle disagreed with Plato’s theory of forms. One always needs another form to explain a form, so the realm of forms was abstract and hard to reach and created an endless process of explaining

Descartes believed that knowledge is derived through experience and deduction, which is reached through innate ideas. Locke on the other hand believed that all knowledge came from experience, and we are not born with any innate ideas. Web are not born knowing anything, including the idea of God, for if we were then we would all have the same notion of God, and we clearly do not. So one believes that some knowledge is certain and the other believes that no knowledge is certain. Locke does believe that reason can bring about certain knowledge and one of these principles of certain knowledge is the existence of God, and with God comes divine moral law, or natural law – a higher law. Descartes did not speak very extensively regarding morality, but did have a moral code which involved obeying the laws of his country, his religion, to master himself and his desires, and pursue his quest for the knowledge of truth. Descartes believed that we all deserve the same moral respect which is similar to Locke’s view of our moral relationship with our fellow

Immanuel Kant believed in science and the processes that brought us to arrive at knowledge. For Hume, virtue and morality arises from our desire and passion to help others. For Kant, it comes from natural law, or God’s will, is our duty and is a categorical imperative that we act morally. Personally, I view the knowledge that man has and our morality through the lens of my belief in God and Christianity. While some may argue that Christian beliefs cannot be true because they lack the ability to stand up to the litmus test of science, I can argue that there are many things that I can know to be true even without scientific evidence. Therefore, Christian beliefs can be true simply because they are part of our thoughts and because we have faith that they are true. C.S. Lewis, “Men became scientific because they expected law in nature and they expected law in nature because they believed in a lawgiver.” I believe that God it a truth and that Christ lived and died and lived again because I have had a personal experience with him in my life, therefore I believe it