Socrates And Descartes

To say that a man is defined by what he does in his life is an understatement when you think of two of the greatest philosophers ever. Each man was very respected while they were living but when you have hundreds or thousands of people still talking about you after your death there is something very special to say about that. Socrates and Rene Descartes spent their life looking for the truth. They looked for the perfect answer to every question because both of them wanted the answers no one could have an answer too. Although these men were alive at very different times, they had the same ideas about life.

Socrates spent his life looking for the truth. He was looked at as being a crazy old man, but that was something he was far from. Socrates looked for a certain answer he would know to be true. Anyone can question everything but Socrates did it in such a way that you wanted to answer his questions in order to prove yourself right. When answering his questions however, people would end up changing their minds and from what they originally thought too not having any idea what they thought. Socrates didn't do this though to confuse the person he was having a conversation with, but he was just trying to find the truth about the world.

Rene Descartes didn't ask other people the questions he wanted the answers too. He asked himself. Descartes only wanted the truth so he had to forget everything he ever learned and start all over asking himself the questions that Socrates would ask of other people. Although Descartes wanted to know everything that was true, the way he figured these things out are still being questioned today. "I think, therefore I am" is that start that Rene Descartes needed to start proving everything he wanted to be true. Descartes was influenced by the precision and completeness of mathematics. Euclid, was the man that influenced him the most, because of his axioms and the thought that you must start all with things that you know are true in order to continue to find out what else is true.

In the "Apology" Socrates tells a story of what makes him the way he is. One of Socrates friends went out into the country and talked to an oracle. Socrates' friend asked the oracle who was the wisest of men, and the oracle responded by saying that Socrates was the wisest of all men. Socrates' friend then returned with the news, and Socrates did not believe him. Socrates actually thought the exact opposite of what the oracle said. Socrates thought that he knew nothing. That is what sent him on his quest to find out whom the smartest man in the world actually was. He would ask the top positions of every field in Athens, and with everyone that Socrates talked to he would ask them how they knew what they did was right? Socrates would ask for the axiom that Descartes would try to start with, when Descartes was trying to figure out if something was right or wrong.

"Is the pious being loved by the gods because it is pious, or is it pious