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42 SUAREZ JASPER G.

LOGIC 003 10:30 TTH ASSIGNMENT 3

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PLATO Like Socrates, his teacher, not much is known about Plato. He was probably born in Athens to an aristocratic family in 428 B.C. He traveled widely and around 367 B.C., he founded his academy in Athens. The Republic is described as Platos celebrated political utopia. His Dialogues includes Symposium, Gorgias, Phaedo, and Apology. Commentators say that Western political philosophies are nothing but a footnote to Plato. Balsicas and Molano and Balsicas (1999) describe the philosophy of Plato as follows: The perfect man, according to Plato, does not exist in this world because what we see in this world is just an imperfect copy of mans original self in the realm of ideas. The individual thing that we perceive in this world is not real, since they exist in space and time; they change; and they pass in our existence. The real thing exists in the world of ideas, which alone is universal and immutable. Man is not only perfect but also omniscient or all-knowing. He knows all things by direct intuition. He only loses all these characteristics when his soul assumes a bodily form on Earth. Now, in order to reach and attain his former self, he should live a life of virtue. Only a life of virtue will enable man to discipline his happiness, therefore, is the result of virtue, which in turn, is wisdom or true knowledge.

ARISTOTLE Aristotle, the Athenian student of Plato, was born in 384 B.C. He was a naturalist who provided the philosophical basis of science that was dominant for 18 centuries. His father was a physician at Macedonia who died when Aristotle was just a boy. Then, the philosopher moved to Athens where he became a pupil of Plato. He returned to Macedonia and became the adviser of Alexander, the son of Philip. That Alexander the Great as people know him today.

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In his later life, Aristotle founded a famous school named The Lyceum. It contributed much to the development of Western science and philosophy. As a teacher, he became influential in the fields of logic, ethics and anatomy. According to Aristotle, if you do something bad you feel unhappy. Such unhappiness is a product of an act that is not guided by reason, but by emotion. In order to be happy, the philosopher said, one must act according to reason. For Aristotle, in order to live a life, one should practice and live what is good. A moderate act that is not too much and too little, or the balance between two extremes, is the focal point of Aristotles tenet in excessive or insufficient is unreasonable, and hence does not give any happiness. To be happy, Aristotle said, man must live in virtue.

CONFUCIUS From him comes the influential Golden Rule. He was a Chinese philosopher born in the state of Lu (modern-day Shandong Province), and married at the early age of 19. Before becoming a teacher in 531 B.C., he worked as a local administrator. Many believed that his keen observation o man developed while working as a minister of justice. His ideas on social reform made him popular and he became a model of the people. But like everyone who has good and intelligent ideas, Confucius also made some enemies with his philosophizing that caused him to leave the state of Lu. Confucius lectured on natural law. He said that peace, harmony and happiness are achieved because everything in the universe follows nature. Man, being a part of the universe, must follow nature to attain happiness. Conflicts in the life of man take place because of his other components which oftentimes contradict each other. These contradictory components are body and soul, matter and mind, reason and passion, and intellect and sense. But conflicts triggered by these human elements can be resolved if a person strictly follows reason. Reason regulates the life of man. Emotion, most of the time contradicts reason. The duty of man is to control his emotion in favor of reason and to achieve peace.
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KARL MARX The German political philosopher and revolutionary co-founder with Friedrich Engels of scientific socialism, Karl Marx is one of the most influential contemporary thinkers. He was born in Trier, Germany on May 15, 1818 and educated at the universities of Bonn, Berlin, and Jena. Marx was a follower of Hegel whose philosophy centers on man. For Hegel, man comes from matter. From the word springs the name of his philosophydialectical materialism. The poor man (proletarian) is always in conflict with the rich man (bourgeoisie). To attain what is called a classless society, there must be no rich and poor. Adhering to the Hegelian philosophy, Karl Marx dreamed of utopia, a society where there are no rich and poor people. For Marx, the poor have to struggle against the rich who own the means of production and the wealth of society. As society turns classless, everyone then works for everybody. Man has to work for the state. Such philosophy is the cornerstone of modern socialism and communism.

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