Human Person by Plato, St Thomas and Rene Descartes - Essay Example

? Human Person by Plato, St. Thomas and Rene Descartes Human Person by Plato, St. Thomas and Rene Descartes Human person is the body which is created by God and accentuated by the soul which according to different philosophers the core substance is making a human person. This also creates a need of a power which is practiced by the substance of human person in authority. Some of clarification by philosophers or theologians has made it evident that human person can be defined as a relationship between mind and body or soul and body. 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, “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 the 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 same time, followers of St. Thomas can easily understand that he believes the soul to be independent of body. The soul does not require any body organ to perform its powerful tasks. Soul is surely protected by the body which differentiates it from other species but in true manner, soul is not fully dependent upon the bodily organs. In comparison with Plato, one can surely consider that St. Thomas is a dualist as well but he is not as extreme as Plato. The concept of power is completely different in the house of thoughts of St. Thomas. Unlike Plato who considered knowledge to be the power of human person, St. Thomas made it evident that it is basically humans who have the power to question. The condition of inquiry is fairly a point where humans can undertake justifications for reasoning purpose. This undertakes the decision that a person is more likely to make. Herein, it can be well stated that St. Thomas believed that it is the human person who is able to question others. He also asserts that the power of human person is limited to the freedom that one human has. This makes it evident that a soul that is not free from the bodily organs can never be powerful. Herein, the question arises that at what point a soul can become powerful which is answered by death. However, St. Thomas uses the concept of paradise making it evident that people who are able to do good deeds are the people with core freedom. Reasoning, the form of knowledge that is most important as per the philosophy of St. Thomas can be done possibly when souls would meet God. The debate or stress that has been laid by St. Thomas on the morality of human person is that of a dualist. He is confirmed about his views of soul meeting God, being free to reason and able to stay independent of bodily organs.3 Finally, the most different view regarding human person is by Rene Descartes who explained human person in two different categories. Unlike the previous two philosophers who created a relationship between soul and body, Rene Descartes has come up with two distinct bases called mind and body. This relationship has been an astonishing one because in this both the categories being differentiated in order to create a relationship were a material i.e. part of the body. This was explained by Rene Descartes as something to be of bodily organ but being under the human will. Rene Descartes made it evident that in order to undertake a thorough understanding of the body and mind, one needs to understand the power that is owed by humans. Thus, it can be said that the concept of human power is interrelated with the definition of human person. This notes that a person undertakes the will of power and reason4. This cannot be undertaken by human person until or unless the mind affirms. Thus, it is merely important to note that it is the mind that tells a person to understand its individuality. The reason behind considering mind as a differing characteristic of the self was because it is the mind that tells a human person to doubt about the environment and surrounding that he lives in. In a true nature, Rene Descartes is also a dualist who believes that God exists and anything and everything in the world is material which is only accepted or rejected by a human person because he or she has a mind that allows reasoning and questioning. In the posed definition, it should be clarified that there is in no way that Rene Descartes discusses soul with body but rather mind with body because he believed that power of human person is not gain knowledge but the will that makes him understand and question about everything that is in his surroundings. For many people the account of human person definition by Rene Descartes is quiet critical to understand but the fact remains that human person could not be defined any better than the comparison or difference between material categories. The view about human nature by Rene Descartes is the most different in comparison with Plato and St. Thomas (Descrates). Through the above comparison and discussions of each of the views, it becomes evident that human person is the basis of understanding the world. My assertion for the human person definition is no different than Plato which in some ways is similar to St. Thomas. I believe that the sole substance of human person can be the soul which is never free until death. In one way or the other, body keeps the soul imprisoned within. The freedom can only be achieved at the time of death when the power of knowledge can be gained without being caged by the body. Bibliography Aquinas, T. Summa Thelogica. New York: Cosimo, 2013. Print. Descrates, R. Mediations on First Philsophy in which the Existence of God and the Disticntion between the Soul and the Body are Demonstrated. Chicago: NuVision Publications, LLC, 1961. Print. Plato. Republic V. New York: Plain Label Books, 1960. Print. Read More