OUR SENSES: A DANGEROUS GIFT

The issue of our mistrust and or trust in our humanly senses remains a building block for philosophies of many notorious philosophers. In the discussions “The Allegory of the Cave” written by Plato and “Meditation: The Path to Enlightenment” by Siddhartha Gautama, The Buddha, both analyze the issue of our senses. Both philosophies are reasonably logical and realistic in their approach to the humanly senses and whether or not they should be trusted or mistrusted, however, they seem to contradict each other somewhat.

In both discussions, our senses are essential to reach our so called goals in life: In Plato’s discussion, our goal is to find Truth; and in Buddha’s discussion, to reach enlightenment. Plato’s philosophy holds senses to be of an untrusting or false guide to reality. He argues that if everyone relied on their senses to interpret reality and find the Truth, everyone has different perceptions of their senses and the reality would be different depending upon the individual. Basically Plato suggests that our senses can be a distraction from the Truth, and therefore, should not be trusted. Buddha’s reasoning of the senses is slightly different from those of Plato. Buddha chooses to not focus on the falsity of our humanly senses, but the element of imagination and how that can alter our perceptions. If we see something as it really is, without integrating our imagination, we are given a freedom to come to a true understanding of the world. Therefore, Buddha suggests that the senses can be trusted, however the imagination is untamed and when mixed with our senses, creates a distorted perception. The main discrepancy between the two philosophers is that Plato believes that senses themselves should be mistrusted, and Buddha believes that only our senses combined with our imaginations are to be mistrusted.