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 life will also think it necessary to impose the same

strict lifestyle on the society it governs.

Aristotle puts a high value on moderation . Many

people favor moderation because it is part-liberal and

part-conservative. There is so much of Plato's utopia that is

undefined and it is carried to extremes that no human being could

ever fulfill its requirements. Aristotle believes that

Plato is underestimating the qualitative change in human character and

personality that would have to take place in order to achieve his

utopia .Plato chose to tell the reader of his Republic how

men would act and what their attitudes would be in a perfect society . Aristotle tries to use real men in the real world in an

experimental fashion to foresee how and in which ways they can be

improved .

Both Plato and Aristotle agree that justice exists in an

objective sense: that is, it dictates a belief that the good life

should be provided for all individuals no matter how high or low their

social status ."In democracies, for example, justice is

considered to mean equality, in oligarchies, again inequality in the

distribution of office is considered to be just, " says Aristotle. Plato sees the justice and law as what sets the

guidelines for societal behavior.

Aristotle puts emphasis on the institution of the polis. This institution is not the state or society merely the

larger unit of the two. Neither Plato nor Aristotle found

it to be necessary to distinguish between the state nor society and

therefore it is difficult to define polis. The polis was

set up to allow political participation on the part of the average

citizen This contradicts Plato's theory of one ruling

class controlling the political power and all decisions that effect

the entire society. The theory of Democracy that Aristotle derived

states that democracy is a "perversion" form of government of "polity" . Aristotle said, "The people at large should be sovereign

rather than the few best" . Plato would never allow the

full public participation in government as Aristotle would like.

According to Plato public judgments of approval and disapproval are

based on belief and not on knowledge.

Plato thinks that is a revolution were to take place it would

be a palace revolution. A palace revolution occurs when

there is a power transfer from one power holder to someone else.

Aristotle sees the cause of revolutions originating with either the

rich or the poor He feels that the means of preventing

revolutions is to anticipate them . Plato thinks that in a

utopia a disgruntled group of Guardians will emerge and break from the

rules. He thinks that in an oligarchy two things may

happen to spark a revolution: the first being the ruler and their

offspring grow to be weak rulers and too sympathetic, the second is

that the number of poor grows larger and suffer exploitation at the

hands of those in power over them . Aristotle states that

to know the causes which destroy constitutions is also to know the

causes which ensure their preservation .

Plato and Aristotle alike were two men who had ideas on ways

to improve existing society. Plato, a political philosopher, was in

the pursuit of philosophical truth . Aristotle was

concerned with the citizen and the design of political institution. They both had well thought out ideas and plans on how to build a better society. Both Aristotle and Plato have had a tremendous impact on political scientists of today. Aristotle helped to developed some democratic ideas. In conclusion these men were great thinkers.

Their opinions on society and its functions were quite different, but

they both had the same intention, to build a better way of life for

the societies they lived in and for the societies that would come to

be in the future.