The Idea of the Good by Plato and Aristotle - Term Paper Example

?Nargis Kadirzada Mr. Ramirez Philosophy 14 April Plato and Aristotle’s Idea of The Good As for Plato and Aristotle, the fundamental idea of theGood is necessarily connected to their metaphysics and epistemology. In the Republic, Plato establishes a hierarchy among the Ideas, with the Idea of the Good as the unconditioned principle of the truth and being of the all other Ideas. Thus, the Good is also that which is knowledgeable and wise, that is to say, that which leads to truth. On the other hand, for Aristotle, the Good is the final and last end of all human actions, for this end is what constitutes the Good. Human beings do not act unless he thinks that the object of his action is good. Thus, the ethics of Aristotle is associated with his idea of telos or purpose. And this purpose consists in the contemplative activity of the intelligence, that is, the true human Good. It is in this regard that for both Plato and Aristotle, the Good is not only characterized by ethics but also of epistemology, for the Good is always, for both of them, that which leads to true knowledge and wisdom. This paper will be divided into three main parts. The first part will discuss Plato’s Idea of the Good. Herein, a discussion of some of his dialogues will take place. Some of which are Laws, Gorgias, and The Republic. One the other hand, the second part will discuss Aristotle’s Idea of the Good. In doing so, two treatises on Aristotle’s ethics will be covered: Eudemian Ethics and the Ethics to Nichomachus. Finally, the third part will serve as the conclusion and final analysis of the matter. Herein, the author of this paper will show that despite the differences between Plato and Aristotle’s doctrines and philosophical approaches, their Idea of the Good are both associated with the gradual improvement of the soul in search for intelligence, knowledge, truth, and wisdom. Plato: Wisdom, Truth and The Good The doctrine of Ideas constitutes the center of Platonic thought. For Plato, there are two orders of reality – one which is sensible and material; another which is immaterial and invisible, and which can only be grasped by the intellect. Plato had conceived of a multiplicity of Ideas: there were moral and aesthetic ideas, ideas of sensible realities, and ideas of artificial things: everything that existed had a corresponding idea. But there had to be an order or hierarchy among the Ideas, and a First from which all the other Ideas proceed. Thus, Plato gives order among the ideas in his Republic. In the Republic, Plato establishes a hierarchy among the Ideas, with the Idea of the Good as the unconditioned principle of the truth and being of the other ideas. He presents his doctrine with descriptive imagery: That which imparts truth to the known and the power of knowing to the knower is what I would have you term the idea of good, and this you will deem to be the cause of science, and of truth in so far the latter becomes the subject of knowledge… so in this other sphere, science and truth may be deemed to be like the good, but not the good; the good has a place of honor yet higher… the good may be said to be not only the author of knowledge to all things known… (Plato, “The Republic” 136). In relation to this is his philosophy of man, wherein he distinguishes between the body and the soul of man. For Plato, body and soul are not only different from each other but also opposed and irreconcilable. Our body is the tomb or prison of the soul (Reale and Catan 157). Human beings are thus deprived from true life for as long as he remains chained to the body since the essence of man is his soul. It is the body that gives rise to every conceivable (Word Count: 353) evil, i.e. to ignorance. Plato’s ethics looks, therefore, to freeing the soul from its bondage to the body. Moreover, courage and knowledge are often distinguished from pleasure and good: “The good are good by the presence of good, and the bad are bad by the presence of evil. And the brace and wise are good, and the cowardly and foolish are bad” (Plato, “Gorgias” 22-23). Sensible pleasures are thus, devoid of moral value; or better yet, they have to be regarded as the antithesis of the good (Reale and Catan 161). On the other hand, the intellectual life is more akin to divine life, and although this is not completely attainable in this life, man can and ought to strive for it. The road toward the true life of the spirit is a path of purification where man exerts effort to reach genuine wisdom. The soul is purified as it reaches ever higher degrees of knowledge; it is healed of its sensible affections and made virtuous. Although he does acknowledge the irrational part of the soul, he nevertheless gives primacy to the rational part and makes virtue depend exclusively on it. The presence of a volitional element of the soul is implicitly and intuitively described in Plato’s discussion of love. Love is conceived as the impulse towards wisdom and goodness; it is the triving for happiness in the possession of the absolute. Lastly, it should be borne it mind that the intellectual life, which for Plato was the ethical ideal, was also a religious ideal. The divinity belonged to the transcendent order. Ideas have a divine character, just like the Demiurge and the soul; and the life, which most closely reflects the divinity, is the life of virtue. I quote: Now, God ought to be to us the measure of all things, and not man, as men commonly say (Protagoras) : the words are far more true of Him. And he who would be dear to God must, as far as is possible, be like him and such as He is… this is the conclusion, which is also the noblest and truest of all sayings – that for the good man to offer (Word Count: 362) sacrifices to the Gods, and hold converse with them by means of prayers and offerings and every kind of service, is the noblest and best of all things, and also the most conducive to a happy life…” (Plato, “Laws” 90). It is in this regard that by analyzing the idea of the Good, that is, Plato’s ethics, it is inevitable to come across his epistemology and metaphysics, for they are all interconnected. Aristotle: The Good and The End of Man There is a fundamental question, which dominates Aristotelian ethics: what is the good? Like all actions, human actions also have an end, and this end is what constitutes the good. As Aristotle says: “Every art and every inquiry, and similarly every action and pursuit, is thought to aim at some good; and for this reason the good has rightly been declared” (Aristotle, “The Nicomachean Ethics” 1). Man does not act unless he thinks that the object of his action is good. There are some good things that are desired only because of their usefulness in the attainment of other goods. It is these other goods, which are truly desired. This I the basis for the distinction between particular goods and the supreme good, which is loved for its own sake as the ultimate end (Aristotle, “The Nicomachean Ethics” 1-2). Yet what is the good? Every being has its proper good; it is this good, which constitutes its last end or good, in virtue of which it desires all the rest. For Aristotle, this proper good is determined by the specific operations of each nature. Thus, for an animal, it would be to see, to hear, while for a man, it would be to understand. The true last end of man must be perfect, sufficient in itself, and absolutely preferred over all others. Moreover, this good must be individual, and once possessed, there should be no possibility of its being lost; only thus can it bring happiness. This good must therefore consist in an activity, which has all these conditions (Aristotle, “The Nicomachean Ethics” 7-12). Normally, a distinction is made between three kinds of goods or ends of human (Word Count: 358) actions: Pleasure, honor or fame, and contemplation. Which among the three is the proper good of man? It is the understanding that distinguishes man from animals; therefore, pleasure cannot be the proper good since it is the consequence of possessing sensible goods, and it is something which man has in common with animals. Neither can it be honor or fame since this good is found not so much in the person honored as in those who render honor; it is an external good in other words. Only intellective contemplation has all the conditions of man’s supreme good, and to its study Aristotle devotes the whole of book X of his Nicomachean Ethics. Aristotle points out that men conceive of happiness as an activity. All men ask: what must we do to be happy? That is to say, how do we life a good life? “Virtually all parties approach the task of justifying ethical principles by way of our inborn desire to lead a life of eudaimonia or happiness” (White 3). Moreover, Aristotle calims: “For every action and choice, the supreme good is the last end” (Aristotle, “Nicomachean Ethics” 7). This means that the proper good of man is found in applying the best act of the best potency, i.e. intelligence, to the best object, i.e. God. The true human good consists in the contemplative activity of the intelligence. This is the virtue of man and the source of his happiness. For Aristotle, this is what it means to have the virtue of wisdom: If this is the case, human good turns out to be activity of soul in accordance with virtue, and if there are more than one virtue, in accordance with the best and most complete. But we must add ‘in a complete life.’ For one swallow does not make a summer, not does one day; and so too one day, or a short time, does not make a man blessed and happy (Aristotle, “Nicomachean Ethics” 14). The true goods can neither be external nor corporeal; they can only pertain to the soul. The true goods of man are the intelligible goods, especially God. Man can attain these goods (Word Count: 360) through the exercise of the human moral and speculative virtues. All men desire happiness, which is the last end of man. For Aristotle, contemplative life is the source of happiness. Happiness is a consequence of possessing the true good; it is fruit of the activity proper to man. For this reason, true happiness can only be attained through the activity of contemplation, provided this activity is exercised in full conformity to the demands of human nature. Conclusion In Plato and Aristotle, Greek philosophy attains its zenith. Thus far, we have talked almost exclusively about Platonic and Aristotelian ethics insofar as it is associated with the rational or intellective part of man. Perfect happiness consists in the activity of the superior part of the rational soul or of reason. Reason also makes its presence felt whenever there are human virtues, whether moral or dianoetic. Thus, as seen from the aforesaid analysis of Plato and Aristotle’s idea of the good, the ethical idea of the good is most often associated with the idea of epistemology and metaphysics. Indeed, since the time of Socrates, the wisest men were the men that had the most authority in society. Thus, knowledge was indeed a tool for power. This power was directed towards one goal or end, and this was the good. All men, regardless of race or culture, had, as its goal, the attainment of the good, that is, of a happy moral and ethical life. True knowledge is characterized by the good, while ignorance with the bad. Thus, a life that’s lived virtuously and wisely is a good life. We see, therefore, that since each man is the cause of his own moral character and of his good and bad habits, he is also responsible for the end he chooses for himself. And this determination of the end, which is actualized in each one of our actions, is always directed to the good, the final end of all things. (Word Count: 325) Works Cited Plato. The Republic. Trans. Benjamin Jowett. Lawrence: Digireads.com Publishing, 2008. Print. Plato. Gorgias. Trans. Bejamin Jowett. Rockville: Serenity Publishers, 2009. Print. Reale, Giovanni and John R. Catan. History of Ancient Philosophy: Plato and Aristotle. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1990. Print. Plato. Laws. Trans. Benjamin Jowett. New York: Cosimo Publications, 2008. Print. Aristotle. The Nicomachean Ethics. Trans. W. D. Ross, J. L. Ackrill, and J. O. Urmson. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998. Print. White, Stephen Augustus. Sovereign Virtue: Aristotle on the Relation Between Happiness and Prosperity. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1992. Print. Read More