Compare And Contrast Plato And Aristotle Divinity

Aristotle and Plato are both philosophers and thinkers of the Greek tradition but they each came to very different conclusions about the nature of divinity. Plato’s god was subordinate to the ever important forms while Aristotle’s god was selfish. Combined together each of their different philosophies could probably come pretty close to the ideas of the great monotheistic religions of today. Although they belong to different philosophical traditions both Plato and Aristotle share many of the same basic ideas even though their conclusions and ends tend to differ quite a bit from one another.

The main idea which sets apart the thoughts of Plato and Aristotle is that of the forms, which must be explained to understand Plato’s divinity. The forms are, of course, the purest essences of everything in the universe. Those things which we find here on earth are only partial manifestations or glimpses of their true form. The easiest example would be beauty. Beauty is found here on earth in all sorts of places: beautiful landscapes, people, or writing. The beauty found here on earth though is indicative of a self-standing maximum of beauty which cannot possibly exist here. “And he who, having a sense of beautiful things has no sense of absolute beauty…” (The Republic) This absolute is the form of beauty for Plato, and it does not exist here on earth but rather in another plain of existence. These forms were the highest of all divinities because nothing could possibly be higher than something which is literally all-encompassing according to Plato.

The forms are not the only divinities to Plato although they are the highest of his divinities. Plato also believes in lower gods which we can find in other parts of the universe. Gods are simp...

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...n Aristotle’s teachings of divinity.

It is clear that although Plato and Aristotle believe different things about what happens after death and what the highest divinities are they do agree on some topics. They both think that the philosophy is the best way a human can spend their lives in a pursuit of happiness and truth. They both think that there are divinities which move the heavens. They both also believe that this world was created and was not just “always here.” Plato and Aristotle were neither Christians, Jews, nor Muslims but their ideas of divinity come so close to these monotheistic religions that it is difficult to believe their ideas have not had any influence in these religions as they developed many years after their works were conceived. In any case it is interesting to see what the thinkers believed before the onset of modern religious traditions.