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Politics of Plato and Aristotle

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Politics of Plato and Aristotle




Politics of Plato and Aristotle


To compare the political theories of two great philosophers of
politics is to first examine each theory in depth. Plato is regarded
by many experts as the first writer of political philosophy, and
Aristotle is recognized as the first political scientist. These two
men were great thinkers. They each had ideas of how to improve
existing societies during their individual lifetimes. It is necessary
to look at several areas of each theory to seek the difference in
each.


The main focus of Plato is a perfect society. He creates a
blueprint for a utopian society, in his book The Republic, out of his
disdain for the tension of political life. This blueprint
was a sketch of a society in which the problems he thought were
present in his society would be eased. Plato sought to
cure the afflictions of both human society and human personality. Essentially what Plato wants to achieve is a perfect
society.


Aristotle, unlike Plato, is not concerned with perfecting
society. He just wants to improve on the existing one. Rather than
produce a blueprint for the perfect society, Aristotle suggested, in
his work, The Politics, that the society itself should reach for the
best possible system that could be attained. Aristotle
relied on the deductive approach, while Aristotle is an example of an
inductive approach. Utopia is a solution in abstract, a
solution that has no concrete problem. There is no solid
evidence that all societies are in need of such drastic reformation as
Plato suggests. Aristotle discovers that the best possible
has already been obtained . All that can be done is to try
to improve on the existing one.


Plato's utopia consists of three distinct, non-hereditary
class systems .The Guardians consist of non ruling
Guardians and ruling Guardians. The non-rulers are a higher level of
civil servants and the ruling is the society's policy makers. Auxilaries are soldiers and minor civil servants .
Finally the Workers, are composed of farmers and artisans, most
commonly unskilled laborers. The Guardians are to be wise
and good rulers. It is important that the rulers who emerge must be a
class of craftsmen who are public-spirited in temperament and skilled
in the arts of government areas .The guardians are to be
placed in a position in which they are absolute rulers. They are
supposed to be the select few who know what is best for society.


Aristotle disagrees with the idea of one class holding
discontinuing political power. The failure to allow
circulation between classes excludes those men who may be ambitious,
and wise, but are not in the right class of society to hold any type
of political power Aristotle looks upon this ruling class
system as an ill-conceived political structure . He quotes
?It is a further objection that he deprives his Guardians even of
happiness, maintaining that happiness of the whole state which should
be the object of legislation,? ultimately he is saying that Guardians
sacrifice their happiness for power and control. Guardians who lead
such a strict ...

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