Philosophy

The  ancient  Greek  philosophers  Socrates,  Plato  and  Aristotle.  Socrates  believed  in  human  learning  and  reasoning.  He  enforced  humans  to  understand  their  limits  to  reason  with  themselves  about  their  actions.  Aristotle  was  born  in  third century  B.C..  He  believed  in  Purity  of  Soul  achieved  by  our  daily  actions  and  habits.  Platos  main  work  is  written in  the  form  of  dialogues  with  Socrates.  However,  his  work  with  laws or  rules  does  not  involve  Socrates  or  has  a  very  small  part  of  him  given  in  them.  Let  us  study  different  spheres  of  their  work  below.

Methods  of  Acquiring  Knowledge

Aristotle - His  ways  of  acquiring  knowledge  involves  both  induction  and  deduction. Aristotle  believed  in  the  provision  to  reason  alone  with  oneself.  He  gave  much  more  emphasis  and  value  to  the  knowledge  gained  by  senses.  He  believed  in  knowledge  gained  by  experiences  as  they  put  us  in  a  dilemma  to  think  about  our  situations  and  actions.

Socrates - He  has  divided  his  education  theory  in  five  basic  parts -

I. Theory  of  Value -  What  is  worth  learning  What  are  the  goals
II. Theory  of  Knowledge - What  is  the  real  meaning  of  Knowledge  How  is  it  different  from  beliefs
III. Theory  of  Human  Nature -  What  is  a  Human  Being  How  is  it  different  from  other  species  What  are  his  limits
IV. Theory  of  Learning -  What  is  the  meaning  of  learning How  are  skills  and  knowledge  acquired
V. Theory  of  Transmission -  Who  is  to  be  taught  What  is  the  curriculum  going  to  be

Plato -  He  worked  on  a  basic  structure  formation  for  acquiring  knowledge.  The  first  way  is  to  acquire  knowledge  through  senses  and  experiences.  Then,  the  second  is  to  reason  the  knowledge  acquired  by  experiences.  Then  to  acquire  true  knowledge  by  reasoning  to  oneself  in  an  ethical  way.

Aristotle,  being  a  student  of  Plato  gave  much  more  value  to  the  education  gained  though  senses  and  experiences.  While  Socrates  developed  a  learning  theory  to  understand  the  basic  structure  of  education  and  its  importance.

Important  of  Thinking - Aristotle  believed  in  rationalizing  our  thoughts  in  an  ethical  way  to  learn  to  follow  ethics  in  our  daily  lives  in  our  habits.  He  pursed  thinking  and  reasoning  to  acquire  real  knowledge  based  upon  the  metaphysical  truths  and  laws.  Socrates  emphasized  on  understanding  human  behavior  on  the  basis  of  their  actions.  He  explained  in  his  theories  that  we  do  not  tend  to  do  evil,  if  we  are  aware  of  its  evil  nature.  He  worked  on  understanding  and  directing  his  studies  to  help  us  reason  our  behavior  with  logical  reasoning.

Plato  gave  his  theories  in  the  form  of  dialogues  explain  the  importance  of  logical  thinking  and  reasoning  to  oneself.  He  gave  various  situations  in  his  dialogues  to  explain  how  to  logic  and  reason  to  ourselves  alone  to  understand  the  higher  truths.

Existence -  Aristotle  believe  in  existence  in  terms  of  its  essentiality.  He believe of  being  a  qua being  or  wisdom  or  theology.  His  Metaphysical  conclusion  over  existence  is  for  any  identity  to  exist  is  directly  related  to  its  essentiality (Cohen, S. Marc., 1978a. 31 387-405). Socrates  taught  that  this  real  subject  world  is  neither  to  generate  or  decay.  It  is  to  be  in  existent  as  it  has  been.  Plato  defined  existence  in  two  different  forms.  One  is  what  we  can  see  in  the  form  of  its  appearance,  and  the  other  form  is  what  we  cant  see.

Key  Ideas  of  Aristotle -

1. Perfection  is  not  an  act,  but  a  habit.  According  to  Aristotle,  we  adopt  our  habits  by  doing  the  same  act  over  and  over  again.  If  we  are  practicing  bad  habits,  we  will  bring  them  in  our  life  as  habits  and  vica-versa.  He  said  that  it  is  important  to  practice  what  is  right  to  create  a  habit  of  doing  right  in  our  lives.

2. Importance  of  Education.  He  was  aware  of  changes  that  be  brought  by  us  in  our  lives  by  education.  Hence,  he  used  to  tell  others  to  spend  time  reading  and  learning  about  life  and  its  rules.

3. Education  Creates  Wisdom  in  personality -  Aristotle  said  that  a  layman hearing  a  concept  for  the  first  time  would  create  an  opinion  of  his  own  reasons  with  the  concept  itself,  while  an  educated  person  would  listen  and  work  the  concept  in  his  mind  first  to  understand  its  deeper  meaning.  Education  makes  a  person  wise  enough  to  think  more  than  to  argue  more  over  a  concept  or  topic.

4. Thoughts  Create  Things -  Even  if  we  are  not  aware  of  the  fact  that  our  negative  habits  are  also  manifesting  something  in  our  lives,  they  do  as  we  are  thinking  them  over  and  over.

Key  Ideas  of  Socrates -

1. No  one   desires  Evil  as  a  primary  desire.  Socrates  believed  that  evil  is  a  force  that  becomes  a  desire  due  to  several  reasons.  Its  is  important  for  a  human  being  to  renationalize  his  thoughts  and  desires  to  move  towards  good  deeds  only.

2. No  one  does  wrong  willingly -  Socrates  gave  this  idea  describing  that  when  people  are  involved  in  evil,  they  are  not  aware  of  it. They  take  their  steps  believing  it  is  a  part  of  life.  At  times,  they  are  even  proud  of  what  they  do  even  when it  is  evil.

3. All  virtue  is  knowledge -  Socrates  was  aware  of  the  divine  weight  of  education  as  well.  Education  is  like  a cure  for  the soul  from suffering  evil  desires.  He  promoted  education  in  people  to  understand  the  right  and  wrong,  as  they  are  given  in  the  universe,  not  to  form  their  own  beliefs.

4. Virtue  is  all  that  is  required  for  true  happiness -  He  believed  in  the  purity  of  soul  and  education  is  the  only  way  to  keep  our  soul  flawlessly  pure.  He  taught  that  it  is  not  necessary  to  discuss  your  thoughts  with  other  people  only.  The  real  capability  is to  rationalize  our  own  thoughts  to  conclude  the  righteous.  Education  can  help  the  best  in  this  rational  practice.  It  is  can  purify  our  thoughts  and  give  us  the  real  and  pure  ideas  to  live.

Key  Ideas  of  Plato -

1. The  Weak  fights  for  Equality - Plato  states  in  his  philosophies  that  strong does not  fight  for  his  level  in  the  society.  He  just  asks  for  what  he  wants  and  achieves  it,  while  a  weak  uses  the  Law  to  fight  for equality.

2. No  one  willing  does  wrong -  Plato  focuses  on  the  theory  of  saving  our  characters  from  the  controllers  of  the  society.

3. Education - He  has  also  given  deep  philosophical  notes  over  importance  of  education.  He  states  that  education  is  the  way  to  be  logical  and  rational  in  our  actions.

We  will  find  similarities  in  their  very  basic  philosophical  beliefs,  for  example,  Education  is  the  most  emphasized  area  of  their  philosophical  teaching.  Each  of  them  has  written  about  importance  of  education  in  ones  life  and  how  it  leads  to  pure  happiness  of  soul.  However,  we  will  also  find  certain  clear  differences  among  their  work.  Plato  was  focused  for  laws  and  rules  about  society.  While Aristotle  devoted  his  life  to  understand  human  and  to  guide  them  towards  righteous  actions  purification  of  soul.   Socrates  has  given  remarkable  theories  in  understanding  core  human  nature  and  reasons  for  their  actions.