The beliefs of Plato and Aristotle can be both valid and invalid in many different ways. This is true for many ancient philosophers. Their ideas can often be hard to touch upon due to changes in things such as time, society, technology and even knowledge. I believe that neither Plato nor Aristotle has complete grasp on their philosophy of life, for as much as the two contradict one another, they also tie in with each other and logically, I believe, one can almost not make sense without the other. I was assigned to choose one of the two whos beliefs I agree with more for this essay.
Personally, as I mentioned already, I think neither is completely valid and I also believe that without Platos views coming into play, Aristotles views are quite pass. I was also assigned to write this essay using examples of personal experience. Although regardless I do ultimately agree with the ideas of Aristotle over those of Plato, I also feel that ultimate agreement with Plato in this essay would be somewhat illogical and contradicting of the itinerary expected. For Aristotle believes in experience as reason and Plato does not.
Platos philosophy I believe contradicts its self in more then the way Aristotle rings to our attention about the senses being separate from the mystical world of the minds. I also somewhat disagree with this Aristotle on this as is evident later on in this essay. I think it is also a contradiction on Platos behalf to say that experience fools us, but to also believe that people with expertise should have power over those without. I dont understand how one can have expertise on anything without experience.
Without the word experience the word expertise would not even exist. I do however, agree with Plato on the fact that life experiences can indeed fool or deceive, but without being ooled or deceived by experience, we would have nothing to learn from. This is where I believe the two views of these philosophers tie in together. Aristotle believes we live life through personal experience. Without the mistakes and deceptions given to us through experience, as spoken about in Platos philosophy, we wouldnt have as much concrete experience to live our lives through.
I believe experience comes with mistakes and learning through them , and although Plato identifies that experience causes mistakes through his philosophy, he gives us no chance in that same philosophy to use those mistakes and what we often learn through hem. Aristotles theory gives us a chance to live and learn which in reality is the way life works. An experience is not done with once a mistake or deception has been incorporated into it. The mistake or deception is often more valued and kept close at hand to be improved on a future situation of that sort or to avoid a reoccurrence.
These points are more valid though the ideas of Aristotle. Such instances in our lives where the tie in between the two philosophers is evident includes such emotions as love, greed, fear, and guilt and our actions we take pon these emotions as well as all emotions in general. Plato claims that the physical senses of touch, taste, smell, hearing and seeing are the basis to all things in life over experience. Imagine ones life however, although emotions cannot always be identified as accurately as the direct physical senses, without feelings such as love or fear.
If a human falsely identifies love, or hate for that matter, which are common mistakes people make throughout life, there is no deeper way to look into and identify such things as true for the future. If one did not have fears to overcome, life would tand without challenge. Although today many of these things are often taken for granted, they all offer learning experiences, as Aristotle would agree, and can often impact our lives in a much more radical way then anything related to the physical senses.
In relation to this issue of physical senses vs. motional senses, such an example to compare and contrast the two is sex. Sex is a physical act, as the five senses are physical and is supposed to come into play after the emotion love is found between two people. In contrary, humans are often fooled by the physical world of sex, elieving good, passionate, addictive sex is equal to love. This is in too many cases false and an instance that sides me a bit with Plato. Perhaps this is evidence that the world of idea and the world of the senses are indeed separate.
This instance however, also makes me disagree with Plato as well. I see this as proof that the senses can fool you as much as experience can, if not more. Another reason, and the last issue I will touch upon in this essay, that I agree more with Aristotle is his theory of final cause. I am a firm believer in seeing is believing. This is a contributing factor to my disbelief in any religion. I use the basis that we have nothing concrete, nothing positively true to tell us what happened before our creation and what the cause of our creation is.
I find it ridiculous to choose one of a lottery of beliefs that often times contradict one another just for the sake of believing in something. Some things just arent known and perhaps are not meant to be known. If one day something were to be proven based on a religion or other regarding our creation and such related topics that go hand in hand with religion, I feel it would be better to ee and then believe rather then to have our beliefs shattered.
In conclusion, the views I posses are ones I learn through everyday experience ranging from small little issues life hands me to the big challenging ones. Although my views can be as close or as distant to those of both Aristotle and Plato, I believe Aristotle and I have a similar grasp on the way life and beliefs work. My thoughts and ideas might be of a simpler philosophy then the two philosophers separate and combined, but Ibelieve a lot of what I say and feel on such topics is very true and evident, and often times more realistic to out lives.