Plato Essay -- essays research papers

Today many people regard Plato as the low gear genuine political philosopher and Aristotle as the first political scientist. They were both great thinkers in regards to, in part with Socrates, being the foundation of the great western philosophers. Plato and Aristotle separately had ideas in how to proceed with improving the society in which they were part of during their existence. It is necessary therefore to analyze their different theoretical approaches regarding their philosophical perspectives, such as ethics and psychology. This paper however will mainly concentrate on Aristotles views on friendship and how it impacts todays society. The main objective in Platos philosophy is a creation of a perfect society. He constructs a foundation for a utopian society in his book The Republic. The subprogram of his thought process was to cleanse his society of the woes he felt plagued it and construct a new one. Plato lived during the Peloponnesian War, which consequently lead to the end of the Athenian democracy. He had eyewitness account of his mentors (Socrates) trial and execution. Bitter and angered by the political corruption that gripped the Athenian classless government, he disengaged from participating in politics. He strongly felt that neither a moral individual nor a conjure that is rational could be established in a democratic environment. Plato felt that the common man wasnt intelligent or capable of dealing with concepts that influence the state such as economics, policy of foreign personal matters and other relative matters. He viewed political incumbents in Athens government as being elected for matters that were irrelevant to main factors that affected the state. Another jeopardy was that excessive liberty for the people of the democratic society could potentially lead to anarchy. In Platos perfect society, he forged ahead to eliminate the malady (pluralism of friendship) that plagued the human character and society (Class Notes). Essentia lly, Plato wanted to establish the perfect form of society, linked by one single entity. Aristotle, unlike Plato, was not focused or concerned about the idea of a perfect society, instead he wanted to improve upon the one that he was part of during his existence. Rather than develop a framework for a society that is perfect, he suggested that society should, in it self, strive to utilize the best system it can attain. He f... ...l truth. Aristotle was more concerned with citizenship and institutional politics. They both had developed ideas and concepts to improve society as a whole. Aristotle and Plato have had a tremendous impact on political scientists of today. In Aristotle case, he was trusty for developing various democratic ideas. Even in modern democracies like our own Aristotles ideas hold true. When we vote in the election of the ruler of our landed estate we, theoretically, are voting for the single most excellent citizen of our nation. That is we are voting for that cit izen who can do the best job of working toward our common interest. The citizen of a state who has the greatest ability to work towards the salvation of the constitution has a great gift that can benefit all citizens. It only makes sense to allow that occurrence individual to lead the rest of the citizens in working towards the common interests of the state. In conclusion, these men were great thinkers. Their opinions on society and its function were quite different, but they both had the same concern, to build a better way of life for their societies they in lived in and for the societies that would come to be in the future.