While
Plato and Aristotle are the giants of ancient philosophy, I find much more
satisfaction in the schools that came after them. Specifically, the Stoics, and
the Epicureans. When reading of Plato and Aristotle, I found their ideas mainly
outdated, products of their time really. While they may have been great minds,
they grew up in a society founded on slave labor. This makes the idea of
inequality between men central to their points. Plato’s Republic reflected this
ideology. Today the ideas of the Republic have been completely forsaken. The
schools following Plato and Aristotle however, have not fallen to the grips of
time.
Perhaps
it is due to the fact that these schools dealt with things that all men are
concerned with. How to be content in the face of tragedies, how to find true
happiness, and how to find the truth in anything. While Aristotle tackled
question like this, the answers that these schools found seem to have more
pertinence to today than the answers that he found. This is not to take away
from the great importance and intelligence that Plato and Aristotle had, but to
say that their philosophical
I find
that the Epicurean philosophy of finding pleasure through friendship and the
absence of pain rather than luxurious pleasures, and the Stoic composure in the
face of tragedy, are still extremely pertinent today; yet Plato’s idea of
grouping people due to intellect or other means is outdated, and seen as elitist
today. I think the four schools are the first instance of pragmatic philosophy
that is still applicable , and even used today.
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