Comparing The Political Theories Of Two Philosophers

Dominic Bressi Prof. Catherine Chaput CH 201 15 October 2014 When comparing the political theories of two renowned philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle, one must first focus on the merits of each of their own theories in depth. Plato is often considered as the first writer of political philosophy while Aristotle is considered the first political scientist. Though Aristotle was once a student of Plato, the two differ on the topic of how to best improve society for the benefit of mankind. Thus, both of their theories need to be investigated to establish the varying degrees of how the two philosophers differ. In his work, Apology of the Socrates, Plato explains that he was one of the young people that Socrates had been accused of†¦show more content†¦Plato believed that hedonism would lead to the downfall of any civilization. Contrary to these utopian views set upon by Plato, Aristotle focuses on how to work with the flaws in humanity in The Politics. He explains that the society needs to work on its own to form the best society it can while embracing the elements that Plato considers flawed in order to be truly successful. According to Aristotle, perfecting human society was not the goal that needed to be worked towards, rather improving the systems we already have in existence is the only way to create something close to a utilitarian civilization. Unlike Plato, who focused on inductive approaches to create a system that should be, Aristotle relied on deductive approaches to work towards what actually could be. Because there was no evidence that societies of the world were in need of the drastic reformation that Plato had suggested, Aristotle considered Utopia as an abstract solution to a problem that was less than concrete. Plato’s utopia is comprised of three different, non-hereditary class systems where the Guardians, who were supposed to be skilled in the matters of the government and were the absolute rulers who were charged with knowing what was best for their societies, were divided into ruling and non-ruling individuals; the non-rulers comprised of civil servants whereas the rulers were those who created policies. The auxiliary individuals in such a society were the minor civil servant and the army.