Philosophy Aristotle and the Good Term Paper

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The first part is spirit, with Plato noting that spirit's job is to have courage and remain steady. The second part is the appetites, with their job being to have restraint and avoid excess. The third part is reason, with reason's job being to control both the spirit and the appetites. According to Plato, an individual's soul becomes virtuous when the three parts are all operating together effectively and this occurs when a person is living a good life. One of the most important points about this view is that it shows how living a good life and being virtuous is a matter of control. This means that a person is not either inherently good or inherently bad. Instead, a person has both good parts and bad parts. To achieve virtue and live a good life means controlling the bad parts and choosing good. Plato also went on to state that for a person to manage themselves and live a good life, they must first understand themselves. This refers to the fact that people will have appetites that make them want to act in ways that are not virtuous. By understanding these desires and the reasons behind them, the individual is able to gain control and willingly choose the good.

The comparison of Plato's and Aristotle's ideas on the good life highlights several problems with Aristotle's ideas.

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The first is the idea that people's souls are not either good or bad. This concept does not adequately explain why people act the way they do, while Plato's view where a person struggles to overcome the bad is a more suitable explanation. Aristotle's view that a person learns to act in good ways out of habit is also questionable, especially when it is considered that Aristotle does not believe that the soul is capable of reason. If this is true, what is the motivation for acting in good ways? Presumably, the soul must gain some kind of reward for the good behavior to continue. Plato's view where the soul has virtue is a better explanation because it shows why good actions result in positive rewards. Finally, Aristotle's ideas lack the link between happiness and virtue. Without this link, it is unclear how living a good life results in inner happiness. Plato's views make this link by his belief that only a virtuous soul can achieve happiness......

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