Plato, St.Thomas, Descartes Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Plato, St.Thomas, Descartes - Essay Example The aim of this paper is to critically differentiate between the concepts of human person by Plato, St. Thomas and Rene Descartes. Plato believed that human person is basically a soul because it’s the most strongest of all and remains immortal. This clearly creates the relationship of mind and body to be of significance of hindrance. The human person is only able to reach to its core excellence within a group setting. According to Plato, body is the reason why the soul of a person will be distracted. Herein, it should be noted that the highest power that can be gained by the human person is none other than knowledge. Ultimately, Plato gave his viewpoint determining that the highest peak of knowledge i.e. power which can be gained by a human person is apprehension of the ideas. However, as noted above, soul is constantly distracted by the body in meeting the highest peak of knowledge. It should be noted that Plato has merely considered body to be the cage in which the soul gets locked. Plato has justified the comment of soul to gain eternal knowledge. At the point where one finds out that soul is the sole player of the power then knowledge is gained likewise. However, the fact remains that souls are merely imprisoned by the body that makes soul to undertake learning in a customized manner. Soul imprisoned within the body tends to create possibilities of learning other things as well. It is evident from the following quotation as well, â€Å"The lovers of learning know that when philosophy gets hold of their soul, it is imprisoned in and clinging to the body, and that it is forced to examine other things through it as through a cage and not by itself, and that it wallows in every kind of ignorance1†. The question arises that at what point can the soul be free from the body where the answer is clear, at death. Body becomes dead but soul remains for which it can fulfill the tasks that it need to do during the life course. In order to fully practice th e power, it is much significant for the soul to get freedom from being caged in the body. The most famous saying of Plato inhibited that those who practice philosophy and self-learning are basically yearning and practicing to become dead. This is in context of the previous statement where soul is to get powerful at the time of death because it is free from body. It will not be incorrect to state that Plato was basically a dualist. His viewpoints about human person, power inhibiting and knowledge etc. are quiet extreme for its own kind. Considering the appetites that are among the parts of soul, Plato marked that appetite is a power that sorts the need and desires of a human person differently. This makes evident that soul is basically searching its way to fulfill appetites. For some, it can be the intellect while for others it is the shelter that keeps them under an entitlement. This also interweaves the ideal of scientific knowledge i.e. in order to meet the appetite; a person may fulfill the chronology of societal bounding based upon science2. Another dimension to look at human person and everything in its concerned pattern is the view of St. Thomas. It should be noted here that St. Thomas also considered human person to be a soul. However, he did not consider body to be utterly invaluable. He has used a comparison method to discuss human person with animals. He noted that body in which the human soul is embodied is basically a way to differentiate humans from animals. At the