Plato-Aristotle

[Admiral "Bull" Halsey]

There are many similarities between Plato and Aristotle’s views on human virtue, but each have adequate differences that make each of these philosophers’ ideas strong. In this idea whose view is closest to the truth will also be discussed because it to be a main point brought up throughout the reading. Plato and Aristotle have two unique perspectives on the topic.

To Plato the soul has three parts; desire, spirit, and reason. Desire is the part of the soul that creates a want for things such as, hunger and thirst. The spirit or ego part is where your honor lies with your self respect. Plato gave the name of an entity, which we, mere mortals according to him couldn’t possibly grasp in our lifetimes, as forms. The esoteric term was to label the realm of our universe, which we hardly thought to exist. This realm is the truth and nothing but the truth. It is the true reality of our world, a dominion that is eternal, perpetual in existence, which cannot change and that which is absolute.

In Aristotle’s Metaphysics, the key concepts are substance, form and matter, potentiality and actuality, and cause. Aristotle develops what he called the science of first philosophy. Aristotle came after his writings on physics. Metaphysics refers to the branch of philosophy that attempts to understand the nature of all reality, whether visible or invisible. It seeks a description so basic, so essentially simple, and so all-inclusive that it applies to everything, whether divine or human or anything else. It attempts to tell what anything must be like in order to be at all. Philosophers generally divide reality into two halves, mind and matter extended and unexpanded reality and do not emphasize such distinctions within the mind half as spirit and soul.

It makes sense that the rational half uses reason to control our desires from taking over and destroying the nutritive part. We must find the mean in our character virtues to keep our reason controlling our desires. The no rational part also, is broken into two parts, the nutritive and the appetitive. They both are philosophers or lovers of wisdom and truth, so they agree that the highest form of happiness is a life of study. For instance, a virtue of character under feelings, like fear and confidence. Excellence is to perform your function well and human excellence is living a rational life well. The aim for a good character virtue would be bravery the mean of rash and cowardice that gives you both bravery and confidence. Both Aristotle and Plato agree that a just life must be a virtuous or happy one. To believes, individual justice consists of the relations among the parts of the soul. Aristotle like Plato believes all humans have a function, which is one soul’s rational activity. The workers have agreement on who should rule, which demonstrates there self-discipline. For example, Plato’s four cardinal virtues, I believe they are needed for a person to be virtuous and complete. A city has justice when everyone is doing what they are supposed to do and good city has all four cardinal virtues, according to Plato. This is the highest form, because it is self-sufficient, pleasant, active, and continuous, the life of study should never lead you away from happiness.

Thanks for actually taking the time of reading this huge and probably boring thoughts of what I have to say...<_<