Aristotle And Plato Similarities

Aristotle is a Greek philosopher who was born some time around 384 BC in the city Stagira, which is in the Greece kingdom of Macedonia, and he died in 322 BC (Wikipedia). Aristotle was a well known philosopher, in fact he was such a well known philosopher that he was given some nicknames from the Ancient Greek people for his modesty. When Aristotle was younger (17-18) he, “...joined Platos Academy in Athens and remained there until the age of thirty-seven” (Wikipedia). At the Academy Aristotle was a great student, but wasn't the best because he was concern of the way they scrutinized philosophical issues and the way world works, and it's not just the perfect forms and realm of ideas that matter, regarding their theory of ideas (Gradesaver).

Plato employs Socratic discussion to converse upon these issues — encouraging his interlocutors to interrogate — by asking numerous open-ended questions in order implore others to examine their beliefs. Comparatively, Aristotle deviates from dialogue and instead expresses and elucidates on his theories in a prosaic and meticulous fashion. Plato’s work reads like an offbeat conversation between curious minds.

1 INTRODUCTION Power and authority are the most important aspects of politics as such way of thinking comes a long way from the earliest thinkers such as Plato and Aristotle to mention few. They are the fundamental features of state in politics, focusing on who should have the power and authority over the people and who should rule them. During the time prior and after the birth of states, political authority has always been a major concern with regards to who should rule and how and who shouldn’t. Therefore this issues need to be addressed in a way that will at the end benefit the society. Plato is the thinker or theorist who came with addressing who should rule in a political environment in what Plato outlined that only Philosophers should rule.

Part A- Socrates In thinking of Socrates we must recognize that what we have is four secondhand sources depicting him. That of Plato, Xenophanes, Aristophanes, and Aristotle. All having radically different accounts on Socrates and his views. Out of all them we consider Plato’s to be the most possible account, even though we face a problem of different versions of Socrates.

All in all, Aristotle’s philosophy made an astounding influence. In fact, it is in Aristotle’s Philosophy that Alexander the Great, which the former tutored in 347 BCE, laid down the foundations of the latter’s empire. Throughout Alexander’s rule, the influence of Aristotle, his mentor, can be seen in the former’s skillful and diplomatic handling of difficult problems throughout his career. When Alexander became a king, he had set forth on a Persian expedition to expand his empire.

I will argue that even with the evidence provided, Aristotle’s theory on

Although humans can take in immense amounts of sensory information, Petrarch argues that total knowledge cannot be achieved. When speaking of Aristotle, Petrarch stresses that he does not have “knowledge of all things through human study” simply because humans are imperfect entities, unable to understand the absolute and unconditioned (101). Additionally, Petrarch articulates that although Aristotle “was a very great man” and was glorified by Aristotelian students,

The two men are regarded as being responsible for the founding of western philosophy. Socrates did not leave any of his own writings and was noted as saying that living was more important than recording for posterity. However, Plato and others wrote enough of his teachings that it is not difficult to reconstruct most of his life. Plato refers to Socrates in a lot of his own writings and sometimes wrote down entire debates between Socrates and his students. Due to the fact that most of Socrates teaching came through Plato’s teachings many modern philosophers are unsure if Plato may have used Socrates as a representative of his own views.

Thucydides and Plato have a clear set boundary in their writings as to what type of assertion they are fabricating. Thucydides sets a very narrow view with his piece of The Peloponnesian War that holds more weight in solid evidence of what a “good life” is demonstrated as. Plato, on the other hand, has several writings that go into depth of weighing what someone’s soul ought to have within itself. The statement of Thucydides making empirical claims, with Plato making normative claims, is supported with evidence in their respected works.

In the beginning of book VI, Socrates makes a point by saying that philosophers have always been able to see things as they are versus people who see things as they vary and so he asks, who should rule? (484b) Socrates then launches into how philosophers are the ones who love the truth and want nothing and will not stand for anything, but the truth. (485c) It is because of that they should rule and so Socrates is asking for a philosopher-king who will seek nothing but the truth through knowledge and wisdom. This is the most important and boldest claim Plato makes in the defense of philosophy.

He mentioned that he would worship the idea of asking them questions, discuss his sufferings to others. He believed that he would win either way because he would be living a better life of finding out who is wide and he could continue his search for true and false knowledge. His arguments are valid because after he states his beliefs, he explains why he thinks what he thinks to be true. He created the theory of, “Either death is a state of nothing ness and utter unconsciousness, or, as men say, there is a change and migration of the soul from this world by another” (Plato).

Similarities Ancient philosophers in Greece and China had begun to think about the world and attempted to explain some phenomena they observed, however, their theories were mainly based on the observation and their thoughts, which led to inaccuracy. Plato pointed out that sense experiences could be misleading but his solution to this problem was unsatisfying. He believed the only method to acquire true knowledge was by reasoning and remembering which lacked evidence to back up. As for Aristotle, he was opposed of controlled experimentation because he thought the constraints prevented the nature of objects from being revealed, which led to mistakes in his theory in our perspectives. Chinese philosophers established the theory of Five Elements and the theory of Yin and Yang, which were totally based on their thoughts, to explain the operation mechanism of the world, thus being criticized by later philosophers such as Wang Chhung for some paradoxes.

There are two giants in the Axial Age of human history, Confucius and Plato, who are considered as the landmark in the oriental and western world. They are great philosophers, ideologists as well as excellent educators, whose thought have profound influence to the oriental and western world. Confucius’s ideas maintain authority for more than two thousand years, which have intimate connections with development of Chinese federal society. Even to this day, it still remains practical significance and reflects the glorious radiant. Plato’s doctrine is a source of Western political thought. The political elites of the west today can still see the shadow of his influence. Confucius and Plato share the similar life experience and the life pursuit. Both of them lived in the period when the slavery system declined and both of them had the ambition to create an ideal society. Therefore, through compare with Confucius and Plato’s idea, we can see there are some similarities in their concepts of philosophy and education. But contribute to the diversity of historical background and culture tradition, we can also see many differences of their thought, among which there are many sparkling points that is worth exploring. In this paper, we’ll study some of their famous pedagogy thought to explore what influences they have brought to the Chinese and westerners’ cognition and behavior and why the two civilizations developed in same period would diverge in such a degree. Furthermore, I

He said “the life of the instinctive man is shut up within the circle of his private interests. But, if our life is to be great and free, we must escape this prison. The main way of doing so is through knowledge, because all acquisition of knowledge is an enlargement of the Self. Through knowledge our mind becomes capable of that union with the universe which constitutes its highest good. Knowledge makes us citizens of the universe, and in this citizenship of the universe consist man’s true freedom, and his liberation from the thraldom of narrow hopes and fears.”

Scholars Aristotle and Confucius are both well-known people in history. Aristotle was an incredible Greek rationalist and researcher while Confucius was a Chinese government official, a savant, and an instructor. They both made huge commitments to ideals and morals. Their thoughtful works were comparable in nature, yet with some unique perspectives, thoughts, and points of view toward temperance.