Descartes vs. Locke According to Descartes, reason must be our last judge and guide in everything. According to Descartes, we must consult reason and examine whether a proposition revealed from God can be made out by natural principles, and if it cannot, that then we may reject it; but consult it we must, and by it examine whether it be a revelation from God or no; and if reason finds it to be revealed from God, reason then declares for it as much as for any other truth, and makes it one of her dictates. Locke failed to supply valid demonstrations of morality and of the existence of God; but since it is questionable whether we have any knowledge, let alone necessary knowledge, in these areas they give no initial support to Descartes views. Mathematics, then, is the crucial example. Lockes attempt to analyze reasoning in arithmetic and geometry into chains in which each link is a perceived agreement or disagreement between ideas is hardly more successful than his proofs of Gods existence. According to Descartes, innate beliefs had been given to us by a benevolently veracious God, then those beliefs would become, for him, items of authoritative knowledge.
But they are not so merely in so far as they are innate, and they would not be so for men who lacked this philosophical demonstration. And if this demonstration itself rests upon an innate idea of God or upon innate knowledge of his existence, then it will be viciously circular, and we shall never be able in this way to achieve authoritative knowledge either of Gods existence or of the content of any other divinely implanted beliefs. Locke plainly treats the question whether people have innate knowledge and innate ideas as an empirical question, to be settled by evidence about how people think and speak, including children and illiterate people and idiots, and about the beliefs in God. But we are often inclined to take a stronger line, to say that there could not be innate ideas or knowledge. A sincere Christian such as Descartes evidently was might be expected to have views about Gods purposes, given some premise saying that God is good, benevolent, or the like. Descartes, however, accepts no such premises, maintaining that there are no standards of reasonableness or value independent of Gods will..
The Essay on Knowledge True Belief
Intro to Phil Knowledge as Justified True Belief Reprinted from The Collected Dialogues of Plato (1961) edited by Edith Hamilton and Huntington Cairns. Plato (ca. 428 to 348 B. C. ) a student of Socrates, teacher of Aristotle and a giant of Western philosophy, best know for his classical theory of ideal forms. Plato writes of a philosopher, Socrates, who appears to question everything down to its ...
