John Locke and René Descartes are quite often considered two of the first philosophers. Both seek answers to the same questions such as: is there certainty in knowledge? What is knowledge? How does our mind work? If Locke and Descartes ask the same questions, they do not obtain the same answers. My goal in this article is to compare and contract the beliefs of Locke and Descartes and explain which view I prefer more. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essayJohn Locke believes that all knowledge comes exclusively from experience. Locke does not believe in any certain knowledge, he believes that “all ideas come from feeling and thinking” and that the only way to gain knowledge is through experience (Locke, 2). Locke argues that at birth the mind is like an empty book and that we are not born with principles of logic such as a square has four sides or two plus two equals four. He believes that this type of information is not innate and that it takes experience to acquire this type of knowledge. Locke argues that as human beings we fill our minds with ideas as we experience the world, and that without these experiences there would be no ideas or knowledge. In summary, Locke believes that all knowledge comes from experience and all knowledge is acquired. On the contrary, according to Descartes, knowledge depends on certainty. Descartes believes that knowledge cannot come from the outside world via the 5 senses because perception is unreal. Descartes says that he dreams of things that seem so realistic to him while he sleeps. He had a dream where he was sitting by a fire in his room, and it seems he can feel the true warmth of the fire, just like he feels it in his real life, even though there is no no fire at all. The fact that he feels fire doesn't really let him know when he's awake and when he's dreaming. Therefore, if his five senses can transmit the heat of fire to him when he does not actually feel it, he cannot believe that fire exists when he feels it in his real life. Descartes argues that if knowledge does not come from within, it must come from experience of the external world with a strict application of reason to all problems. Even though Descartes says that knowledge can come from experiencing the external world, he still believes that knowledge from within is the only certain knowledge. John Locke was the first to define the self as consciousness. Locke defines the self as "that thinking and conscious thing which is sensible, or conscious of pleasure and pain, capable of happiness or unhappiness, and which is therefore concerned with itself, so far as that extends." consciousness” (Locke 1694, p. 307). Locke believes that awareness is the key. He argues that it is the awareness of our experiences brought back to the present moment as a memory that gives us an identity with our previous self. So, because memories are created all the time and because we don't always remember the same things, our identity is fluid, constantly changing, discontinuous and can die, even if the body continues to live. As in the case of extreme amnesia. Locke also believes that consciousness can be transferred from one person to another and that personal identity also comes with them. Locke states: “The question is what makes the same person; and not whether it is the same identical substance, which always thinks in the same person, which, in this case, has no importance: different substances,.