The Significant Differences Between Plato and Aristotle Aristotle's main philosophy is to have virtue so as to achieve the ultimate

goal - happiness. The "Golden Mean", which means to do everything in moderation, not to be excessive or to be deficient, was the main concept that he believed people to obey in order to achieve virtue. Plato's teaching is basically driving toward the ideal, reaching the universal truth through the ideal Forms, which is the ultimate truth and knowledge. Plato also used dialogue and logic as the main tools, and with the aid of reasoning from mathematics to arrive with coherent conclusions, so as to determine the universal truth. Aristotle's philosophy is to make choices to be good and to habituate the acts of good to become virtue, while Plato believed that to know the good was sufficient to do the good, without actually doing it. Using observation and combining with the rational mind (formalized logic) is the foundation of Aristotle's philosophy on knowledge as "discovering". On the other hand, Plato's view of "remembering" knowledge is based on his belief that all human have the innate truth. Aristotle and Plato's different views on knowledge and ethics also reflected in their different ideas on metaphysics, where Aristotle believed all things are Becoming as supposed to Plato's belief that all thing having Being. The whole idea of Plato's ideal universal Forms was to see how things ought to be, while Aristotle believed that using scientific method and formal logic to seek the truth is the way things are, by studying the principles and causes. Applying science properly, it can explain why things behave as they do and why they have to be as they are. On Plato's doctrine of the Forms. It shows the level of knowledge that goes from the lowest as images in the visible world, which are the most superficial, to the highest level in the intelligible world, which are the good forms, that can only acquired with knowledge. He claimed that the Forms is changeless, spaceless, eternal patterns of which the objects we see are just copies. However, Aristotle argued that this concept

doesn't agree with things that we understand in the world. Things do change and are full of motion. If the forms doesn't take up any matter; hence, it's not related to any particular thing. Aristotle believed the matter and form coexist and cannot have one without the other. He further went on to define the process of change as having four causes. Which are 1) what is it? 2) what is it made of? 3) by what is it made? 4) for what end is it made. These four causes basically cover the fundamental questions of the things in the world around us. The concept of unmoved mover defined by Aristotle doesn't imply that it's the creator, but just the actual eternal principle of motion., while Plato used Demiurge, a creator (God), to explain his views on motion. On government and politics, Aristotle thought the purpose of a state is to enable it's citizens to achieve their ultimate goals in moral and intellectual fulfillment, in additional to preserving life for families and villages. He also emphasized that the political community should do the highest good, because it comprises of all men, without a community, men can't be self-sufficient. "he who is unable to live in society, or who has no need because he is sufficient for himself, must be either a beast or a god", he said. This shows his strong belief of how men need to form community to be self-sufficient. On the other hand, Plato looked more into the ontos, a person's being, this is illustrated in the concept maps of the four stages of development of the mind and the three levels of the polis. The political community is not the most important, rather, it's the individual person's mind and knowledge are the ultimate goal to achieve happiness. Aristotle believed that aristocracy is the best form of government, while Plato strongly believed in the "philosopher-king" idea to be the ideal government. Plato's political philosophy is based on the virtue of a society is analog to the virtue of a moral person. His three-part concept of the soul can be applied to the society as the three classes of people, namely the craftsmen (appetite), guardians (spirit) and the rulers (reason). Justice of the society can be achieved with the proper balance and

harmony of the three classes of people. To Plato, virtue means the fulfillment of one's function, to achieve the highest good. Plato described the soul as having three parts, reason, spirit and appetite. By having all of the three components to also fulfill their functions, they become wisdom, courage, and temperance, respectively. It is only then, the virtue of Justice can be achieved. Aristotle simply defined the soul as having two parts, the rational and irrational parts, to achieve the ultimate goal for human is to be happy. This is the result of the rational part of the soul controlling the irrational part, and acts out the good of the soul to achieve virtue. Aristotle agreed with Plato that virtue means the fulfillment of one's function, he also introduced the concept of Golden Mean to be a necessary condition to become virtue. He further defined intellectual and moral virtues, where intellectual virtues are wisdom came from within and also learned by observation and from other people. Moral virtues are the results of habits, it involves deliberate actions. This is a major departure of Plato's view of to know good is to do good. Aristotle was Plato's student at the Academy for twenty years, and Plato had a large influence on Aristotle's initial philosophical ideas. After Plato's death, Aristotle left the Academy and later formed his own school. It was after he left the Academy that he deviated from Plato's philosophy and developed his own school of thought, including invented the formal logic and to study things in a more scientific way by observation and deduction. As a result of his work, he had major influences on later scientists of various disciplines on how to conduct logical scientific research.