[Philosophy]Aristotle or Plato?

[JetRaiden]

Ive been reading "The Passion of the Western Mind" for Philosophy class, and Ive been wondering which ideology you guys lean towards. Youll have to base it off youre own knowledge, but heres a very simple example of Aristotle's and Plato's views:

Plato: Believed in an "Other Worldly" perspective. Meaning we are all originally in a higher world, but are born on Earth, and dont know what Truth Justice etc really are. We only see shadows of what's true/real.

Aristotle: Believed in a much more practical sense of reality. Everything has a purpose, and there is a reason for why everyone and everything is here.

[Triggar]

I studied Aristotle first, so my views towards him are biased because I hated the course at first. But you have to appreciate what he thought - he did afterall teach Plato and plant the seeds of Plato's methodology.

Aristotle's vision for the perfect society is a really interesting concept to think about. If you read Ayn Rand, she bases a lot of her work off Aristotle's concepts.

However, I think Plato had a better idea of what the fuck reality was - Aristotle made me want to kill myself sometimes when I was reading his ramblings. But, meh.

[JetRaiden]

Originally Posted by Triggar

I studied Aristotle first, so my views towards him are biased because I hated the course at first. But you have to appreciate what he thought - he did afterall teach Plato and plant the seeds of Plato's methodology.

Aristotle's vision for the perfect society is a really interesting concept to think about. If you read Ayn Rand, she bases a lot of her work off Aristotle's concepts.

However, I think Plato had a better idea of what the fuck reality was - Aristotle made me want to kill myself sometimes when I was reading his ramblings. But, meh.

actually I think Aristotle was a student of Plato, not vice versa. I just read like 50 pages of that book, very hard to follow sometimes.

lil sampling:

"Aristotle's logic could be represented in the following way: (a) All motion is the result of the dynamism impelling potentiality to formal realization. (b) Since the universe as a whole is involved in motion, and since nothing moves without impulse toward form, the universe must be moved by a surpreme, universal form. (c) Since the highest form must already be perfectly realized- i.e., not in a potential state- and since matter is by definition the state of potientiality, the highest form is both entirely immaterial and without motion: hence the Unmoved Mover, the surpreme perfect Being that is in pure form, God."

I feel like I need to smoke a hickory pipe and stroke my chin as I read this.

[Infernus]

Plato... I had to read "The Republic" for school once... the man is very realistic as opposed to most other Greek philosophers... He saw society for what it was, and the same things still apply for the most part today, but I digress for the sake of saving us from debate over politics and the current state of the social system.


Plato was a student of Socrates, Plato witnessed Socrates being put to death by the government of Athens... it was what compelled him to write "The Republic".

[Triggar]

Ah, I'm getting old.

I mistook Aristotle for Socrates!

[ViperGTS]

/me runs from this thread

[OfaLoaf]

Wasn't Socrates the Greek philosopher who doubted everything?

[Jekz]

Doubtful.

:|

Me not know.

[JetRaiden]

Originally Posted by OfaLoaf

Wasn't Socrates the Greek philosopher who doubted everything?

well he questioned everything. it was a little different. Im not studying socrates right now, so Im not really sure. I know that he questioned the unquestionable (at the time anyway) like system of government and society. it eventually got him killed.

[Triggar]

Socrates didn't doubt everything, he questioned everything.

Annoyed the shit out of the local politicians, who never had answers.

[Mag]

Originally Posted by Triggar

Socrates didn't doubt everything, he questioned everything.

Annoyed the shit out of the local politicians, who never had answers.

Amazing how things don't change eh?

[Bighoss]

Originally Posted by Mag

Amazing how things don't change eh?

was thinking the same

[Infernus]

Originally Posted by Triggar

Socrates didn't doubt everything, he questioned everything.

Annoyed the shit out of the local politicians, who never had answers.

Their solution... Hemlock... which leads us to Plato!

[Sputty]

Aristotle and Plato are overrated
Alot of what they wrote was during a time where people believed everything was made of fire, water and earth, and they often used those things.

That being said, Plato has a better idea IMO, but I feel he gets a little too spiritual

But then again, I'm an existentialist, so I believe everyone chooses their own actions and should take responsibility for those actions.

[Zodiac]

Believe it or not I used to spend hours and hours comptemplating existance and philosophy. I gave it up, purged it from my mind, (was driving me mad) and decided to take things at face value, to try and enjoy all aspects of life for what they are without wondering why or how things came to be. I imagine my life will be too short to worry about deep thinking.