Plato vs. Aristotle Essay Example

Plato vs. Aristotle Socrates developed many theories in regards with the political issues. He passes these onto Plato and from Plato to Aristotle. Each time these political issues were passed on they changed. Plato and Aristotle lived in the fourth century, BCE. They were both great thinkers in regard to philosophy and both had wonderful views. They both had different views on politics and philosophy. Plato supports the higher forms (Gods) and Aristotle supports the natural science. Now Plato is referred to as the first political philosopher and Aristotle as the first political scientist. There are a lot of differences between the two even though Aristotle was a great student of Plato. There are some similarities too, but first we will discuss the differences. As far a politics, Plato stated in the Republic that philosopher rulers who possess knowledge of the good should be the governors in a city-state. The Republic is the most important dialogue within Plato's teaching of politics. It is a political, and a work dealing with what traits or virtues one must have, as its whole purpose is to show that the one cannot be separated from the other. His approach to metaphysics is portrayed throughout the Republic where he talks about the Allegory of the Cave. He believes that people cannot see the forms; they only see their shadow on the wall. His views are very theoretical. Aristotle feels that the rules come form the politics and that is the proper way of governing a state. Plato's theory of forms states that there is a higher form for everything that exists. He believes that one can't see the higher forms unless they love knowledge and only those who think about the reality of things will understand the higher forms. In the Republic Plato's philosophy of the philosopher kings is that only philosophers are in tough with reality so they are the only ones fit to rule the rest. (Miller, Jensen, 490) Plato wanted to create a perfect society; his perfect society