Plato versus Aristotle Political Philosophy - Essay Example

?Plato vs. Aristotle Political Philosophy Political philosophy of western civilization began just as any other tradition that people practice. Political wave spread across Athens before the beginning of the sixth century BC, and it had significant impacts on society. This period is also considered as the transition from darks ages. This period is also considered as the period when the society had begun considering the value of organization. During this period, most societies became organized into cities that had well defined governments or leadership. Philosophers were prominent people to those societies since they were influential to the people. Plato and his student Aristotle are well known for their efforts and contribution to the society on matters concerning governance and leadership. This paper will therefore, analyze the views of Aristotle and Plato towards governance. The essay will focus on their views towards self-interest and property. Philosophers around the world consider Plato as the greatest philosopher of western civilization. Although western civilization was characterized by a by democracy and capitalism, Plato considered communism government and lifestyle as the most appropriate. According to Plato, democracy and capitalism were just experimental ideologies that were not practical (Benardete 134). Plato considered communism as the most applicable lifestyle in people’s lives. According to his utopian society, the success of a government can only be defined by the success of its people. Plato also considers that a society is best governed by its best minds. A society can only be ruled by its best mind when there is limited competition or self-interest within the society. In such society, people would be working towards the realization of a common goal. This is the basis of communism according to Plato. The best minds of a society are the kings or philosophers within that society. Plato considers a socialist society as a society that is governed by wisdom and proved knowledge. A society that is different from Plato’s society is governed on un-established knowledge. The philosopher considers a socialist society to be better than a capitalist society. A communist society as described by Plato is a selfless society such society people work towards the realization of common goals. According to Plato, a utopian society can only be realized if people adapt knowledge. Plato acknowledges that people in an ideal society have no desire for power and common interests and goals drive them. People need knowledge to tame their desire for power and self-interest. According to Plato, people with self-interests are uneducated and therefore, quality education will eliminate people desire for power. Educating people will make them change their attitude towards the community and the country and, this will eliminate their desire for power. Application of knowledge is power; an educated person will be able to visualize the relationship between power and knowledge. According to Plato, relevant education will make the people understand the relationship between power and knowledge. This will make people compete for power based on their knowledge. People with less knowledge therefore consider themselves less appropriate to take leadership positions The love for the public is the second strategy that Plato proposes to use in order to tame people’s desire for power. Plato proposes that creating the love towards the nation among people makes them have an obligation towards the nation. This is followed by a separation of self-interests from national issues. People who have love for the nation assume responsibility over the nation and, this eliminates their desires for power. People who are hungry for power cannot establish an ideal nation that Plato proposes. People can only live satisfactory lives if they establish a gap between their self-interests and national interests (Allen 76). Plato is confident that acquisition of knowledge can tame desires for power and self-interests. According to Plato, people suffer due to lack of knowledge. Plato also reorganized that people in his society were hungry for power as well as knowledge. The cave analogy proves that people are unaware of the problems that lie ahead of them. The analogy also explains that affecting knowledge on people can be of great significance in their lives. According to the analogy, people are walking in the dangerous path of self-interest due to lack of knowledge. Education will make people discover themselves and, this is the first step towards a rewarding life. Educating people will also make them discover the problems associated with desire for power and the negativities of self-interests. Plato is also confident that education will have significant impacts on people’s lives. According to his thoughts, desire for knowledge is the nature of humanity. This indicates that people have hidden desires for knowledge that can only be exploited through education. Influencing people with the right knowledge is capable of revealing their true desires for knowledge. Plato claims that a philosopher or a king should govern an ideal society. His claim also recognizes the existence of a real society within an ideal society (Grube 45). Aristotle argues that in a real society, the property owners should have an opportunity to make decisions. Aristotle believes that moderate distribution of property among people is essential to leadership. Although Plato prefers an ideal society, such society cannot be established in the real world. A real society therefore, has greater chances of survival than an ideal society. Human nature and desires are impendent of the society. Property ownership is a human desire that is independent of the regime in a given society. Aristotle acknowledges this fact and argues that in such society people should have equal distribution of property. According to Aristotle, wealth or property plays a crucial role in governance. People in real society consider wealth to be beyond knowledge and therefore, wealthy people are influential to the society. Moderate distribution of property distributes influence across the society. In addition, widespread distribution of moderate property ownership creates a level playground in which people can compete favorably. Unlike Plato’s ideal society, Aristotle’s society was to be governed through principles of democracy. In such society, each person was to have an equal vote or a chance to make decisions. Having more widespread but a moderate distribution of property will contribute to people ability of making decisions. Aristotle also argued that a widespread distribution of property among people could enhance their ability to make decisions. His argument was based on equality that results from equal distribution of property among different people living in each of the proposed state. In his outline of an ideal state, Aristotle believed that most polities would not achieve equitable distribution of property. He also believed that there would be a significant gap between the rich and the poor. Although his ideal society proposed widespread and moderate properly ownership, real polities could not achieve such state of property ownership. Although property ownership is of considerable interests to the governance of each polity, it is independent of governance. This is because property ownership is governed by factors, which are beyond the governance of each polity. Aristotle also acknowledges that in the real world, societies would be governed by forces of competition. In such societies, people would be driven by individual desires. Property ownership is an individual desire; people in each polity will therefore own as much property as possible. This indicates that none of the polities in Aristotle’s ideal state would achieve his proposed state of property ownership. According to Aristotle, equitable distribution of property in the real world is unrealistic. Existence of a wide gap between the rich and the poor is inevitable. The real world is therefore, characterized by few rich people and many small property owners. In such states, government should be more concerned with the issue of bridging the gap between those who have and those who do not have. According to Aristotle, bridging this gap does not involve distributing wealth from the rich members of the society to the poor members of the society but eliminating the mentality of riches and poverty. According to Aristotle, riches and poverty are illusions that people have on their mind. From his argument, poverty and richness is a thing of the mind that can be eliminated. The difference in property ownership among the rich and the poor are a demonstration of the difference in property ownership among the rich and the poor is a demonstration of their mentality in the real world. Aristotle and Plato shares similar ideas on the potentials of education. According to Aristotle, the difference between the rich and the poor can be solved using relevant education. In conclusion, Aristotle’s main objective is to analyze how different organizations structures work in each state. In “The Politics,” Aristotle acknowledges that stable governance can only be achieved if there is a balance between the rich and the poor. Aristotle also considers the existence of a real world over the existence of an ideal world. Plato proposes an ideal world, which will be governed by philosophers or kings. In such state people should be more concerned with knowledge than material property. Plato therefore, considers education as an important factor in any society. Plato considers that people’s desire, for power can be tamed through relevant education. Works Cited Allen, Richard. Plato: The Republic. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006. Print. Benardete, Seth. Socrates ‘Second Sailing: on Plato’s Republic. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998. Print. Grube, George. Plato: The Republic. Revised by C.D.C. Reeve. Indianapolis: Hackett, 1992. Print. Read More