Aristotle and Plato: Attainment of Good Life Research (Essay Sample)

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Attainment of Good Life
Both Aristotle and Plato were in agreement that justice could only occur in an objective sense, in that it should dictate the general belief that all persons should be provided with good life regardless of their social status. The polis was hence established to promote citizen participation in the political environment. Nevertheless, Plato and Aristotle were not in agreement on what pertains good life, even as the latter supported the formation of the polis while the former objected such a move. Plato believed in one ruling class holding the ultimate power to control the society, making all the decisions without consulting members of the societyCITATION Muk11 \p 118 \l 1033 (Mukherjee and Ramaswamy 118). On the other hand, in his theory of Democracy, Aristotle believed that a good life entailed allowing the larger part of the public sovereignty as opposed to a few and hence allowing the ordinary citizens an opportunity to participate in the decision making processCITATION Kaz15 \p 61 \l 1033 (Inamura 61). Plato differed with this aspect of allowing the public to fully participate in the government as advocated for by Aristotle. Plato argued that the judgments of disapproval or approval as made by the public were not based on knowledge, but on belief. As such, he believed that allowing public involvement in government would interfere with the actual attainment of justice.
Aristotle and Plato were also in agreement on the importance of virtue in attaining a good life. Nevertheless, Plato considered virtue, such as knowledge, the only important thing in attaining such a lifeCITATION Muk11 \p 120 \l 1033 (Mukherjee and Ramaswamy 120). Plato held the Socratic view that knowledge was a virtue and that an individual who knew good would undoubtedly do good. This is formed the basis for his support for the elite class ruling the society as they were knowledgeable and he believed that they would fairly distribute justice as they understood what justice was all about unlike the mob, who would replace reason with beliefs and jeopardize and chances of getting justiceCITATION Ari00 \p 128 \l 1033 (Aristotle 128). Plato believed that once one had attained knowledge as a virtue and was considered to be wise, then the rest of the virtues would follow, what he considered as the unity of virtues. To him, attaining such virtues was sufficient for one to gain happiness or a good life.
On the other hand, Aristotle had a whole different concept of a good life and strongly opposed the unity of virtuesCITATION Ari00 \p 55 \l 1033 (Aristotle 55). He believed that by knowing what was good, one was not necessarily going to do good. As such, he argued that one could only be virtuous by habituating themselves to a certain virtue. In other words, Aristotle held that individuals could be knowledgeable about virtues, yet fail to practice such virtues. In addition, as much as he agreed with Plato that wisdom was the strongest virtue, he differed on the poi...