A comparative of Aesthetics in Plato, And Descarte's Philosophy

Descartes'' absolutist rationalism makes a gap between human perception and the physical word. As a result، there will be a separation between his rational approach to the word and that of sensory-emotional. Now، the problem is that whether there is any place for beauty and aestheticism in the Cartesian rationalism. In this paper، we will deal with sense and sensory perception in Descartes rationalism، the place of aestheticism in his Philosophical system and the question that whether it is possible to have a reliable knowledge of beauty on such a basis. The basis of Cartesian philosophy is on “I think therefore I am” and subjectivism، as a result of this principle، is an absolutely new concept at the center of his philosophical system. This is a viewpoint in cognitive، ethical، pragmatic، aesthetic and artistic areas in which the basis is on subject، the doer of an ethical act، a judge of aestheticism and the creator of an artistic creation. Hence، the question is: what is the relations between aestheticism and subjectivism as one of the essential and important issues in western philosophy ''in the modern era''. After briefly going through the classical aestheticism of Plato and beauty in the context of Descartes’ subjectivism، this paper adopts a comparative approach to argue that Descartes، as the father of modern philosophy، would revolutionize the philosophy of art and aestheticism، influenced by Plato، by a different interpretation of existence، reality and knowledge. Based on this view، we can recognize him as the founder of modern philosophy and a estheticism.