Examining the Ethics of Plato and Aristotle Essay

This essay will be examining the ethics of Plato (428-347 BCE) and Aristotle (384-322 B.C). I will firstly attempt to summarise the five fundamental concepts of Plato and Aristotle before providing my own opinion and view on their ethics. I will concentrate on their theories on the good life as a life of justice, censorship, knowledge and the good life. I will first examine Plato’s ethics. Plato was a philosopher who was both a rationalist and absolutist. According to his view, people must be schooled to acquire certain kinds of knowledge i.e. mathematics, philosophy and so forth. This training will give them the capacity to know the nature of the good life. Since, evil is due to lack of knowledge. Not all people have the mental†¦show more content†¦This was how Plato perceived absolutism. Aristotle’s overlook on what is the ‘good life’ as he used an empirical approach to ethics. The ‘good life’ as Aristotle defines it as one which has happiness as a characteristic or ‘a life of happiness’. ‘Happiness is an activity of the soul in accord with perfect virtue’. ‘People ought to behave so as to achieve happiness’. I believe that Aristotle’s answer will be everyone always ought to follow the middle course between certain kinds of activities. Aristotle uses an analogy to describe happiness. The analogy of happiness is best described as how much a person can eat. For example, if a person believes that having two cakes would be sufficient for his lunch, but if he believes that having one cake would not be enough for his lunch, then how much is right for him? To be right for him, he must eat between one and two cakes in order to satisfy his appetite. This is Aristotle’s formula, ‘the do ctrine of the mean’ or the preferred name ‘golden mean’. The ‘Doctrine of the Mean’ is the moderation in all things. The virtues we must have are virtues of moderation. This will be different for different people as Aristotle believed. Aristotle is therefore a relativist. I would now like to share my opinion and perspective on how I perceive the theories of Plato and Aristotle. In my view, the better solution to the problem of the ‘good life’ is Aristotle’s belief rather than Plato’s belief of the good life. Firstly, Plato’sShow MoreRelatedEssay about Aristotle and Platos Views on Reality980 Words   |  4 PagesAristotle and Plato were both great thinkers but their views on realty were different. Plato viewed realty as taking place in the mind but Aristotle viewed realty is tangible. Even though Aristotle termed reality as concrete, he stated that reality does not make sense or exist until the mind process it. Therefore truth is dependent upon a person’s mind and external factors. 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