Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle: Changing the World - Their Everlasting Effects

Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle were three of the greatest philosophers of their respective times. They taught us simple people to ask questions and break the chains that the government has put us in. They did have their different views on philosophy, government, form/matter, reality, knowledge, and a host of other things. Nonetheless, they opened our feeble minds to the truth.

The first of the three, Socrates, was a man who changed the views of many, but may not have even existed. Most of what he said, or at least what we know of, is recorded by Plato, so there is no tangible proof of his existence. Assuming he was a real person, he asked his students open ended question such as "what is courage?" and "what is a virtue?" He never gave his students full answers to these and like questions. This complements the concept that humans are born with all the knowledge that they will ever have. Socrates was the wisest man because he knew nothing; this was a paradox he commonly used. This means that he considered himself wise because he knows that what the government was saying was not fully true. Socrates also was the original person to tell us to question the government. He told people, most importantly the youths, that they should ask the government "Why" and question the decisions they make. He was later prosecuted and killed for this. When it comes to reality, Socrates thought everyone could recognize and participate in right behaviors. Plato conversely thought that moral goodness was restricted to the elite who could master it through philosophical studies. Socrates taught us much, and his successor built off his teachings.

The second man, Plato, was a student of Socrates. Their student teacher relationship leads to some parallels between their philosophies, such as knowledge. Plato states that we are born with all the knowledge that we will ever have. "That is, knowledge is present in the human mind at birth. It is not so much that we 'learn' things in our daily experiences, but we 'recollect' them".This is a concept that Socrates may have agreed with Plato about (keeping in mind that Plato came after Socrates). Aristotle on the other hand refutes this statement; that will later be mentioned. A reoccurring theme among the three is that they felt that the government was corrupt. Plato most likely feels this way because the government killed Socrates, his friend and teacher. In his book, The Republic, one section called the Allegory of the Cave, talks about how the government is controlling what we think. This is about how the government is hiding the "truth" from us. It shows us that people (us) are chained and looking at a wall. Behind the chained people are the puppeteers (the government) who are casting shadows. Behind them is a fire (democracy) casting light, causing the puppeteers to cast the shadow that we see. He agrees with Socrates that we should question the government. He also says that the government is corrupt because they use emotions not logic.

The third philosopher, Aristotle, had many beliefs that were diverse from Plato and Socrates. The main thing he viewed differently was knowledge. He thought that it comes from experiences, and that were not born with it. He also had other views that were in contrast with Plato's. Even though he was taught by Plato he still chose this different view. Another thing that he viewed differently was forms. He uses the example of the chair. Even though it is broken into pieces and burnt, it is still part of a chair. (Aristotle's Metaphysics) His counterpart, Plato, thought of forms conversely as heavenly bodies. Though, once more they all do have one concept in common, government. Aristotle viewed it as corrupt as well. He says that all forms of government were bad. He said that monarchy can turn into tyranny, aristocracy into oligarchy, and moderate democracy into radical democracy or anarchy. But of the three he viewed moderate democracy as his preference. When it comes to his physical theories, he says there are four elements: fire, air, water, and earth. Of these he noticed they tend to go its original place. Fire and air move up, whereas earth and water fall down. Later when he added his fifth element, star, he expressed a slight reference to religion. He says that something sets the world in motion, the Unmoved Mover which he later refers to as God. Aristotle changed the face of philosophy by having views that opposed those who came before him.

Philosophy has changed the way the Greeks view the world. Those who catalyzed these changes were Socrates and his ask why, Plato and his views on government, and Aristotle with his views on knowledge. Though these philosophers did have there respected different views, they were all willing to stand up and say that something was wrong.