Ariel Salazar PHIL 150 Final Essay

Plato and Descartes on Dualist Structures

A dualist structure is a structure that consists of two parts that are both related to and

independent of one another. For example, the well-known phrase “there are two kinds of people

in this world…” is one that implies dualism because the one who says the phrase is the one who

is making a distinction between two types of people. Two philosophers that have recursively

implemented dualist structures throughout their work are Plato, a student of Socrates, and

Descartes, a French mathematician in the 1600s. In this paper, I will compare and contrast

Plato’s concept about the world of forms with Descartes’ proofs of the existence of God and of

the mind and body being separate things. Additionally, I will provide my own interpretation of

each philosopher’s concept and how it applies to the modern world.

One of the aspects of the essence of the world is imperfection. In our world, living

beings, objects, and other matters are changing indefinitely with respect to time. Due to this

change, nothing in this world is perfect because nothing is definite. While many people are

aware of this imperfection of a world and choose to ignore the idea of an ideal world, Plato

strongly disagrees with this point of view and constantly argues against it throughout his work.

According to Randy Aust’s video ”Plato's Theory of Forms (Beginner).”, Plato believes that

imagining the ideal version of anything is one of the most useful kinds of exercises for thinking.

Before I elaborate on Plato’s argument, let’s consider an example. First, consider a well-known

object such as an apple. While you and I may have an image of an apple in our minds, there is a

variety of different versions of this apple in the real world. All apples are different in color and

ripening stage which is not necessarily the image we had of the “ideal” apple. Although all

apples are different, all apples share the same essence, and, therefore, we recognize them all as

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Ariel Salazar PHIL 150 Final Essay

apples. In Plato’s terms, the “ideal” apple is referred to as the form of the apple, and for any

object X in our apparent world, the form of X exists in the so-called world of forms (Aust).

The world of forms serves as a blueprint for the perfect version of an object, and while nothing in

our material world is perfect, we can use this blueprint as a guide to determine what is wrong and

how to make it better.

Two common concepts in philosophy are about the existence of God and the dualism of

the body and mind. Descartes proves both of these concepts true by reasoning from a series of

premises to arrive at a conclusion. The premises that Descartes follows to prove the existence of

God are summarized as the following: I am an imperfect being with a notion that perfection

exists and, therefore, a perfect being also exists, which I name God (Cottingham). In other

words, Descartes recognizes that he is imperfect, but has an idea of a perfect being, and since

God has all perfections and Descartes’ idea of God is perfect, then God must exist as a being.

While he seems to contradict himself in his reasoning by saying that his idea of God is perfect

when he is an imperfect being, he further encourages his proof by explains that existence is

perfect and real, and since the amount of perfection and reality of a cause is the same as its

respective effect, then God is also perfect and real because God is the creator of existence.

Descartes takes a similar but less complicated approach for proving the distinction between the

body and the mind. Firstly, he states that if he can be certain that his mind exists but uncertain

that his body exists, then he can see the distinction between his body and mind. Secondly, if his

mind is non-spatial and but his body is spatial, then he can also see the distinction between his

body and mind (Cottingham). Both of these proofs show that he distinguishes the body and mind

in terms of physicality and abstraction in order to prove them distinct.

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Ariel Salazar PHIL 150 Final Essay

Although the similarities between both philosophers and their dualist concepts may be

noticeable at this point, I will point them out and elaborate on them with my own interpretation.

To avoid confusion, we should interpret the word “God” in the context of an existing and perfect

being rather than in the religious context. Firstly, we can see that Descartes’ proof of the

existence of God is similar to Plato’s world of forms. According to Descartes, we are imperfect

beings which means that we will never be perfect like God. We can also use Plato’s argument

and state the analogy that we belong to the apparent world just like God belongs to the world of

forms. In other words, we can never obtain the essence of a perfect human being, but we can use

the blueprint of God as a guide to becoming better people. Secondly, the world of forms is

applicable to our bodies and minds because we can use an image of the ideal body and ideal

mind as a guide to allow us to improve both our bodies and minds.

Both the dualist structures of the philosophers also have differences and inconsistencies.

While Plato’s argument of the world of forms is an intelligent one, it may not apply to all matter

in the apparent world and ideal versions in the world of forms. For example, if we take the body

into consideration, we realize that the body may easily fit into the apparent world and may also

have a form of which represents a healthy and fit body. In other words, the body is applicable in

both the apparent world and the world of forms. However, the mind does not fit in with either

philosophers’ arguments. In the context of the world of forms, the mind would not fit in with the

apparent world because the mind is not physical nor spatial. Therefore, the mind would have to

belong to the world of forms by default, which does not make sense because that would indicate

that the human mind is perfect when, in reality, it is not. Additionally, Descartes states in his

proof of the separation of the body and mind that he can be certain that his mind exists.

According to his proof of the existence of God, existence is perfection which means that the

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Ariel Salazar PHIL 150 Final Essay

existence of the mind makes the mind a perfection, which is also false because the mind belongs

to an imperfect human.

Both Plato and Descartes make compelling arguments about dualist structures that are

worth considering. Plato’s world of forms encourages us to recognize the essence of things and to

use that image to make beneficial changes in our lives. For example, to obtain a more

comfortable lifestyle one could brainstorm what the ideal lifestyle would consist of and then

make the necessary changes. Descartes’ proofs of God and the dualism of the body and mind are

a reminder that our world is imperfect and could have only been made by a perfect cause and

effect. While both dualist structures agree with the distinction between perfection and

imperfection, they are also inconsistent because although the human mind is an imperfection, it

cannot be categorized as a material nor as a form.

References:

Aust, Randy. "Plato's Theory of Forms (Beginner)." YouTube. Retrieved from

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7xjoHruQfY

Cottingham, John. “Mind-Body Dualism.” Descartes: Meditations on First Philosophy: With

Selections from the Objections and Replies, Cambridge University Press, 2016.