Judgement of ethics Analysis Essay Example For Students

Judgement of ethics Analysis Essay Category:PhilosophyPaper Title:judgement of ethicsText:Almost everyone has heard of the two great philosophers, Plato and Aristotle. Few people though, know much about their life long achievements. Their ownpersonal beliefs and philosophies. In order to understand them, we must fistexamine the background of the two philosophers. Plato was born to an aristocratic family in Athens. When Plato was a child,his father died, and his mother married Pyrilampes, who was an associate of thestatesman Pericles. As a young individual Plato had political ambitions, but hebecame disillusioned by the political leadership in Athens. He eventually becamea disciple of Socrates. Socrates spent his time talking to people about ethicaltopics. He hoped by this means to discover definitions of the virtues, thinkingthat in learning what virtue is he would become virtuous and that this wouldmake his life a happy one. He also hoped to expose other peoples false conceitof knowledge about ethical matters, thinking that such conceit prevented themfrom becoming virtuous and happy. Socrates appealed to some people, but herepelled many others; he also came to be associated in the public mind withanti-democratic factions in Athens. In 399 BC, Socrates was tried on a charge ofimpiety, convicted, and put to death. Plato witnessed the death of Socrates atthe hands of the Athenian democracy in 399 BC. By accepting Socrates basic philosophy and dialectical style of debate: thepursuit of truth through questions, answers, and additional questions. In 387Plato founded the Academy in Athens, the institution often described as thefirst European university. It provided a comprehensive curriculum, includingsuch subjects as astronomy, biology, mathematics, political theory, andphilosophy. Aristotle was the Academys most prominent student. During his lifetime, he had wrote many books towards philosophy, however The Republic is theone of more important work in the history of European thought. In essence, itdeals with the central problem of how to live a good life; what is justice inthe State, or what would an ideal State be like, and what is a just individual?These questions also encompass of arts should be encouraged, what form itsgovernment should take, who should do the government and for what rewards, whatis the nature of the soul, and finally what godly sanctions and afterlife shouldbe though to exist. However, we must not forget the other great philosopher, Aristotle. He wasbornin 384 BC. at Stagirus, a Greek colony and seaport on the coast of Thrace. His fatherNichomachus was court physician to King Amyntas of Macedonian, and from thisbeganAristotles long association with the Macedonian Court, which considerablyinfluencedhis life. While he was still a boy his father died. At age 17 his guardian,Proxenus, senthim to Athens, to complete his education. He joined the Academy and studiedunderPlato, attending his lectures for a period of twenty years. In the lateryears of hisassociation with Plato and the Academy he began to lecture on his ownaccount,especially on the subject of rhetoric. Although he studied under Plato. Aristotlefundamentally disagreed with his teacher on just about everything. He couldnot bringhimself to think of the world in abstract terms the way Plato did; above allelse, Aristotlebelieved that the world could be understood at a fundamental level throughthe detailedobservation and cataloging of phenomenon. That is, knowledge. At the death ofPlato in347 BC, he had wrote many different book. Among them all, one of whichconsidered tohave greater inference over other is The Politics. In the contest of The Republic, Platos major political work, is concernedwith the question of justice and therefore with the questions what is ajust state and who is a just individual? The ideal state,according to Plato, is composed of three classes. The economic structure of thestate is maintained by the merchant class. Security needs are met by themilitary class, and political leadership is provided by the philosopher-kings. Aparticular persons class is determined by an educational process that begins atbirth and proceeds until that person has reached the maximum level of educationcompatible with interest and ability. Those who complete the entire educationalprocess become philosopher-kings. They are the ones whose minds have been sodeveloped that they are able to grasp the Forms and, therefore, to make thewisest decisions. Furthermore, Plato associates the traditional Greek virtues with the classstructure of the ideal state. Temperance is the unique virtue of the artisanclass; courage is the virtue peculiar to the military class; and wisdomcharacterizes the rulers. Justice, the fourth virtue, characterizes society as awhole. The just state is one in which each class performs its own function wellwithout infringing on the activities of the other classes. Plato divides thehuman soul into three parts: the rational part, the will, and the appetites. Thejust person is the one in whom the rational element, supported by the will,controls the appetites. An obvious analogy exists here with the threefold classstructure of the state, in which the enlightened philosopher-kings, supported bythe soldiers, govern the rest of society. The Odyssey And The Pearl: Loyalty EssayAristotle continues by making several general points about the nature ofmoral virtues, such as desire regulating virtues. First, he argues that theability to regulate our desires is not instinctive, but learned and is theoutcome of both teaching and practice. Second, he notes that if we regulate ourdesires either too much or too little, then we create problems. Moreover, heargues that desire regulating virtues are character traits, and are not to beunderstood as either emotions or mental faculties. At the heart of Platos philosophy is his theory of Forms, or Ideas. Ultimately, his view of knowledge, his ethical theory, his psychology, hisconcept of the state, and his perspective on art must be understood in terms ofthis theory. Platos theory of Forms and his theory of knowledge are sointerrelated that they must be discussed together. Influenced by Socrates, Platowas convinced that knowledge is attainable. He was also convinced of twoessential characteristics of knowledge. First, knowledge must be certain andinfallible. Second, knowledge must have as its object that which is genuinelyreal as contrasted with that which is an appearance only. Because that which isfully real must, for Plato, be fixed, permanent, and unchanging, he identifiedthe real with the ideal region of being as opposed to the physical world ofbecoming. One consequence of this view was Platos rejection of empiricism, theclaim that knowledge is derived from sense experience. He thought thatpropositions derived from sense experience have, at most, a degree ofprobability. They are not certain. Furthermore, the objects of sense experienceare changeable phenomena of the physical world. Hence, objects of senseexperience are not proper objects of knowledge. Platos own theory of knowledge is found in the Republic, particularly in hisdiscussion of the image of the divided line and the myth of the cave. In theformer, Plato distinguishes between two levels of awareness: opinion andknowledge. Claims or assertions about the physical or visible world, includingboth commonsense observations and the propositions of science, are opinionsonly. Some of these opinions are well founded; some are not; but none of themcounts as genuine knowledge. The higher level of awareness is knowledge, becausethere reason, rather than sense experience, is involved. Reason, properly used,results in intellectual insights that are certain, and the objects of theserational insights are the abiding universals, the eternal Forms or substancesthat constitute the real world. Nevertheless, At the heart of Platos philosophy is a vision of reality thatsees the changing world around us and the things within it as mere shadows orreflections of a separate world of independently existing, eternal, andunchanging entities called forms or ideas. Ordinary objects are what they areand have the features they do in virtue of their relation to or participation inthese more fundamental realities. Forms are the proper objects of knowledge orunderstanding, and the desire to attain understanding of them is the properdominant motivation in a healthy and happy human life. The apprehension andappreciation of formal reality makes life worth living; it also makes one moral. However, unlike his teacher Plato, Aristotle was much concerned with naturalphenomena. He was impressed in particular with living creatures: their abilityto develop in specific predictable ways after they have come into being, to liveout lives of characteristic types, and to leave behind replicas of themselves. Aristotle developed many of the ideas distinctive of his thought-change, nature,matter and form, causation, potentiality and actuality in the effort to describeand explain these regularities, and much of his philosophy is concerned withdeveloping the implications of these ideas and with applying them, in hisethical and political writings, to the specific case of human beings. Thephilosophies by both philosophers presents a tremendous amount of intelligenceand knowledge within themselves. However, when it comes down to their ethic ofbeliefs, it would still be highly debatable in present day. Philosophy