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 In response to the skeptics, Plato argues that the tyrant is not therefore truly happy, and that this can be seen in his behavior. Ruled by lower passions, tyrants are known to displace Reason with Emotion, such as the fear of being assassinated, the inability to trust others; or, he will displace Reason with Appetite, such as the unsatiable greed for riches or power. In the end, such a person will be pulled apart by his lower passions, and cannot possibly find happiness with a disordered soul. Plato brings up the ancient figure of the tragic hero in order to illustrate this. Moreover, Plato argues, the suffering saint is happy amid his suffering because he is ruled by reason, and his soul is ordered. Happiness thus springs from inward qualities in the soul, according to Plato, and is not contingent upon external circumstances. When the lower passions are ordered by Reason, there is "psychic harmony," a quality of soul that is not vulnerable to a fatal blow from an external source. A person can therefore suffer externally, and remain happy because there is harmony internally, in his soul.
Descartes develops a correspondence theory of truth. However, for Descartes, truth is always going to have to remain private. He believes we have direct and immediate contact with our own ideas. Whatever we see we bring back to our minds. If we don not like what that something, then we distort it. Our eyes and other senses distort the truth and can deceive us. Descarte says: I have accepted as possessed of the highest truth and certainty I have learned either from the senses or through the senses. Now these senses I have sometimes found to be deceptive; and it is only prudent never to place complete confidence in that by which we have even once been deceived. (Descartes, Rene, "Meditations," Struhl, Paula Rothenberg, and Struhl Karsten J., editors, Philosophy Now. Random House: 1980, P. 88)
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