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Descanter’s essence is the inherent substance to which physical properties are built upon. Socrates forms are also cannot be destroyed, and as his notion Of a soul is akin to the forms, the soul also cannot be destroyed. Comparatively, Descanter’s essence has no defined lifespan, but is rather simply better known than the body. Both Socrates and Descartes, in accordance to their Substance Dualism, believe that their respective form or essence has causal control over the body as part of either the mind or the soul.
Socrates notion of Forms is fundamentally flawed, as it raises many objections which lead to absurdity. Primarily, if there is to be a true form for everything in the physical world, would that mean that the forms in themselves are imperfect? For example, there may be a perfect form of banana for all bananas, but yet the perfect form of fruit is that of an apple. Is that to say that the perfect form of banana is somehow less perfect than the form of an apple because it is only the form of a banana and not that of a fruit?
Or does it somehow bear thinking that a banana is therefore not a fruit, r that simply, the notion of “perfect” forms which correspond to the material we encounter every day is inapplicable. In the context of the soul being akin to the forms, would the “problem of perfection” with Socrates Realm of Forms then lead us to believe that there is a perfect form for each person, and that some people ‘s souls or forms, are more perfect than another’s soul?
Therefore, Socrates conception of forms leads to making itself invalid, for as there is a perfect-ere form of all perfect things, there could equally mean that al materials things are therefore perfect manifestations of the form of “rotten yellow Cavendish Banana with five spots near the stem”. When these self-contradictions are considered, the Realm of Forms seems improbable, if not impossible. Considering now Descanter’s notion of the essence, which is perceived through his intellect and has no discernible sensory qualities, it can be found that, apart from being vague, the notion of the essence is flawed.
Descartes has extricated the secondary properties from primary properties Of an Object, tit the secondary properties being the sensory manifestations, and the primary properties being the time and space the object occupies. In saying that there is an “essence” to all things that is there even when what is normally considered the properties of the object is, goes against Bundle Theory. Bundle Theory operates on the idea that humans are a collection of sensory input, but nothing exists behind this. Descartes attempts to rationalist that the essence is also the “spirit” of all things, and within the human it is the “soul” or “mind”.