Comparing Aristotle & Plato
Plato and Aristotle have formed democracy, defined philosophy for centuries, defined ethics, set the roots for our understanding of the cosmos, created university principles that are still used today. They are unmistakably among the handful of the most important individuals that have ever lived.
Without them we would not be the same. We might ask, what would happen if they were not born? Arguably, paganism would rule, Christianity would have maybe never arisen from Israel and settled in Greece and Italy. Aristotle invented the concept of formal logic, without any influence at all. And Plato’s definitions and concepts on mathematics are still being used today. The question of this essay is which man has been a larger influence on our society today. In this essay I will first go through the major works of Plato and later compare them with Aristotle’s. To reiterate our aim is to clearly see which man has been more influential to us and our western democratic world. From this observation of the past we can see where we have gone wrong, where we can ask for change, and what we should subsequently aspire towards as we move forwards.
Before you continue, I have written something about this in the past, if you want some more work on this topic:
