Nina Monroe :: essays research papers

Nina Monroe 16 April 2002 Philosophy Ethics 6. What arguments are offered by Plato and Aristotle that the just heart is happier that the unjust one? Do you find these convincing? Why or why not? The Happy Life So dont entirely give us a theoretical argument that nicety is stronger than injustice, but tell us what each itself does, because of its own powers, to someone who possesses it, and that makes injustice bad and justice good.1 In this quote from Platos Republic, Adeimantus challenges Socrates to demonstrate that justice is good in itself, and ultimately, to prove that the just life is the happiest life for a human being. both(prenominal) Plato and Aristotle, two of antiquitys greatest philosophers, concern themselves with the issue of human happiness. Neither thinker considers fate to be the definitive factor for achieving happiness. Rather, Plato and Aristotle argue that our actions and thoughts cinch a significant role in creating a happy life. This argument, as present ed in Platos Republic and Aristotles Nicomachean Ethics, also asserts that a life in accordance with justice is the happy, or good, life. Thus, tracing each philosophers theory of the happy life necessitates a discussion of their definitions of justice. Here too, the two philosophers show a great degree of agreement. Although the philosophies of Plato and Aristotle contain major differences in their fundamental principles, both thinkers take similar stances on the relationship between justice and happiness. Plato, through diverse Socratic dialogues, chooses to present his definition of justice in the context of a just state, later applying it to the case of a human. In the just state depict by Socrates, each individual performs a sure function within society.2 It is in this principle of proper functioning of each part, from which Plato derives a definition of justice. It should not come as a surprise, therefore, that Plato was highly critical of Athenian democracy, which encoura ged its citizens to try many different professions throughout each of their lives. Plato found that a certain element of conflict or turmoil arises from conditions that promote various parts of a system to meddle with the other parts. Platos notion of justice all the way echoes his overall theory of a highest good, or the good in itself. The highest good is constituted by something completely above the sensible world, and understood only within the realm of intelligibility. The truths of the intelligible realm are ordered and unchanging.