Compare and contrast aristotles and platos idea of the good Term Paper

Compare and contrast aristotles and platos idea of the good - Term Paper Example 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 betwee n 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 be ing 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, â€Å"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: â€Å"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