Plato and Confucius
There are thousands of credible philosophers for people to study today, therefore the choice of who to study becomes a burdening task. Each single one has amazing knowledge and insight that we could all learn something from. There are people who don’t call themselves philosophers but bring philosophical thought to us, and then there are those who dedicate their lives to the love of wisdom. Philosophers have existed for thousands of years, and as long as the sun comes up, there will be philosophers in the future. The human mind is made for philosophizing. So as we young, blossoming philosophers try and make sense of the world in general and the philosophical world specifically, we must find people to enlighten us and share with us their knowledge and theories. These people can range from ancient Chinese philosophers such as Confucius, to early Greek philosophers such as Plato, to more modern philosophers such as Descartes or Locke. Each philosopher brings a different aspect to our learning in their differences in time, culture, knowledge and personality. Many philosophers have a great and withstanding reputation attached to their name, therefore gaining worldwide respect and inquiry. Two of those philosophers are Plato and Confucius. They are perhaps two of the most recognized names in philosophy, and rightly so because of their contributions to the world. All the knowledge that is spoon-fed to us today was not available to these early philosophers, so it makes their ideas even more commendable. Both of these men dedicated their lives to philosophy, and because of that, they have everlasting places in the philosophical world. They are widely followed even today because of their breakthrough theories. Plato an...
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...ey are; it is more about how rich and famous you become.
I believe that either of these philosophers would be a valuable one to follow. There is no reason why you can’t take lessons from both in an effort to improve your life. They both incorporate fundamental human values like justice, truth, wisdom, goodness, and righteousness in their efforts to improve the human condition, both individually and in society as a whole. Confucius’ ideas may be a little easier to follow since it doesn’t require you to throw your current way of life out the window. His emphasis on simplicity, respect, and understanding could drastically improve the lives of anyone who studies him. However, Plato’s focus on reason is something that could lead you to want to change in an effort to live better. It is obvious that both men have a love of wisdom, and are therefore true philosophers.
Aristotle believes that society should achieve eternal happiness and just acts. Plato was also an influential philosopher due to his study of the nature of truths and virtues. Thomas Aquinas believed in moral and virtuous acts from a Spiritual perspective. Knowledge and the governance of the law relies on the contribution of several different effective
Socrates a classical Greek philosopher and character of Plato’s book Phaedo, defines a philosopher as one who has the greatest desire of acquiring knowledge and does not fear death or the separation of the body from the soul but should welcome it. Even in his last days Socrates was in pursuit of knowledge, he presents theories to strengthen his argument that the soul is immortal. His attempts to argue his point can’t necessarily be considered as convincing evidence to support the existence of an immortal soul.
the purpose to preserve was in vain" and he says they are all in the
Plato and Nietzsche both great philosophers who shaped the narrative of Western philosophy are often appointed to the opposition of each other with Plato setting the scope of the beginning of the era of absolute truth and value, Nietzsche in the other hand presented its death. Plato’s examination of a perfect society led him to believe that knowledge and power must be fused in order to achieve its full potential, while Nietzsche took that tradition and maneuvered it differently to reveal that knowledge is power in a different disguise. In essence we still follow and look back to Nietzsche’s idea of power. With the examination of these two thinkers the extraordinary depth of the two philosophers’ questioning and the difference of their answers lead to the reflection of the structure of philosophical thinking and its continuing importance in shaping how we preserve truth.
Plato vs. Aristotle How do we explain the world around us? How can we get to the truth? Plato and Aristotle began the quest to find the answers thousands of years ago. Amazingly, all of philosophy since that time can be described as only a rehashing of the original argument between Plato and Aristotle. Plato and Aristotle's doctrines contrast in the concepts of reality, knowledge at birth, and the mechanism to find the truth.
The best way to create a strong society has been discussed in depth by each of these men at great length. Plato believed that philosophers should be the ones to lead since they were those who understood absolute truth. He believed that a philosopher-king would be the ultimate leader because he had the great knowledge combined with leadership qualities to govern the people. Therefore he could effectively rule a civilization with both his moral views and his intelligence of military and economic issues.
The characteristics of a good philosopher are someone who possesses the qualities to use their habits of mind and be able to think on a higher level than most do. Though everyone has their own unique habits of mind, philosophers are trained to think at a level where their habits of mind are stronger, and thus are always looking for, and usually come up with the best solution to questions, or problems posed. Plato is an example of a philosopher; he wrote a book, The Republic, which is a novel outlining the steps in order to become a good philosopher. Plato speaks through Socrates in the book, and Socrates gets involved in many challenging debates and philosophical conversations with people along his journeys, allowing him to strengthen his habits of mind. Philosophers are posed with the challenge of attempting to solve many of life's unanswerable questions. One example would be the question as to whether abortion is right or wrong. Both sides can be argued, pro life or pro choice, and both have sufficient evidence supporting its side. Although it would make sense that the person who’s fully informed on the subject and has the best ability to argue their contention will prevail in the conclusion of the argument, a solution is not usually possible.
Making comparisons: I would describe these political thinking and practiced expressed as something that took a lot of knowledge about the world and people behavior. These two writings share their ideas first and how they think things will turn out. This makes me think that all these people took a long thought process before offical establishing it. Though those people might not agree with one another, because they had their own unique ideal ruling. For example, Pericles, and Aristides might agree with Ashoka, because they have the belief of equality, and they might learn a little bit from each other. While Han Fei would be the only disagreeing, because he does not believe in soft punishment.
Critics have for a long time argued that there is no way that philosophy and religion can come together. In their argument, they find many a religious group conflicting with the sound doctrine purported by the philosophy arena. For those who have tried to harmonize the two disciplines, they have been met with complex questions on the authenticity and their grounds of arguments. However, the works of ancient (middle-age philosophers) and religious thinkers and scholars has had challenges too but there are two outstanding works that have gained credit from most, if not all, of the scholars and modern philosophers. In this Essay, the researcher takes a keen look at the works of Aristotle and that of St. Thomas Aquinas. To be able to tackle the essay well, it is important to ask at this stage, using Aristotle’s philosophy and Thomas Aquinas’s philosophical insights, is it possible to establish a connection between the warring sides of philosophy and religion? In this essay, the researcher will start by giving a perceived basic definition of magnanimous man, and then proceed on to the subject of power in relation to Aristotle’s Philosophy and Aquinas’s religious inclinations. This will then be followed by Pity and Mercy that will also be referred as the previous section too. Please follow through as the subject is dealt with in depth.
Interest in philosophy is a skill that young ones should posses so that they will learn to become more active in life. By learning philosophy, they begin to learn why people do things and different theories of how the world and the universe work. Philosophers help us to portrait different roles related in present situation.
Plato's views was most fecund. Plato, being a rationalist, believed that as humans we learn about the world through out mind, and we hold a-priori knowledge. On the contrary to Plato, Aristotle, being an empiricist, believed that we learn through our senses after we look out into the world. Through the years rationalists and empiricists have both have went on to try to conclude how we know what we know. However, the famous rationalist Descartes went through radical doubt to see what can we really know. His radical doubt proved only one thing he cannot doubt which is that he is thinking. He stated "I think, therefore I am." He continued to build using this as the only tool of certainty to prove others. Through empiricism, there is no certainty
I decided to pick someone that was a pioneer for philosophy just like these gentleman mentioned previous, and that is Bertrand Russell. Russell was a great thinker, philosopher, and even a mathematician. He was never shy to take a viewpoint on any matter, sometimes his viewpoints even changed which is one thing I find very admirable of Mr. Russell, he was always welcoming of different points and could be persuaded if he felt as if he may be wrong and or lacking correct information. Living from 1872-1970 he had a very full life of a miraculous ninety eight years.
Plato or is his mouthpiece in the Republic, Socrates, developed many philosophies and ideas that were way before its time. As the Republic and the city became more and more luxurious, the fear of jealousy from neighboring colonies and/or groups arose. Also, before allowing the thought of tyranny to enter the minds of any of the guardians, Socrates believed he needed to educate and train them from an early age like a puppy. With people they are familiar with, along with loved ones, the guardians will be respectful and calm. But, once a threat rises, the guardians become a guard dog instead of a puppy and fight with great valor and pride. In conclusion, in my opinion, the reason Plato proposed to censor the educational curriculum of the guardians
Philosophy can be defined as the pursuit of wisdom or the love of knowledge. Socrates, as one of the most well-known of the early philosophers, epitomizes the idea of a pursuer of wisdom as he travels about Athens searching for the true meaning of the word. Throughout Plato’s early writings, he and Socrates search for meanings of previously undefined concepts, such as truth, wisdom, and beauty. As Socrates is often used as a mouthpiece for Plato’s ideas about the world, one cannot be sure that they had the same agenda, but it seems as though they would both agree that dialogue was the best way to go about obtaining the definitions they sought. If two people begin on common ground in a conversation, as Socrates often tries to do, they are far more likely to be able to civilly come to a conclusion about a particular topic, or at least further their original concept.
Throughout history, the love of wisdom has taken us to all sorts of places around the world and to very different people. From Socrates and Siddhartha Gautama, to Kant and Nietzsche, philosophers themselves have varied just as much as their ideas have. However, as different as these people were in their beliefs, they were all searching for the same thing, really. Truth. Whether that truth be something as simple as why do people do what they do, or something as grand as why do we exist, philosophy gives us the opportunity to answer these questions. While we may never come to one ultimate “Truth,” it will always be able help us come to our own, independent, “truths.”