Philosophy and History Term Paper

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Philosophy

In his discourse, The Republic, Plato describes the "ideal state" as composed of three social classes: the merchant class, military class, and philosopher-kings. The merchant class maintains and provides service to the society by safeguarding the people's economic activities, while the military class provides the society's security needs. However, in order to establish a stable society, the class of philosopher-kings must govern, having the knowledge, skills, and talent to govern and lead over the society politically. Moreover, the philosopher-king is appropriate for the role of a political leader because he (Plato assigns the role to men) possesses virtues of temperance, courage, wisdom, and justice. These three classes provide balance in the society in terms of the security, prosperity, and leadership, thereby establishing what Plato calls the "ideal state."

Aristotle's philosophy on happiness and the good life is illustrated in his discourse, the Nicomachean Ethics, wherein he posits that in humans achieve happiness based not only on his/her pure intent to be happy; rather, s/he takes into account both intellectual and moral values when studying the nature of happiness among humans. According to him, the nature of happiness and good life is achieved through self-sufficiency: "[n]ow by self-sufficient we do not mean that which is sufficient for a man by himself, for one who lives a solitary life, but also for parents, children, wife, and in general for his friends and fellow citizens, since man is born for citizenship." Self-sufficiency, in this case, is the process wherein an individual achieves happiness not only on individual happiness, but also happiness achieved by other people through the individual. In effect, Aristotle's concept of happiness and good life is based on collectivism (collective happiness) and not the western ideal of individualism.

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In The City of God, St. Augustine introduces the 'two cities' in which humanity first began: the earthly and heavenly cities. The earthly city, according to St. Augustine, is characterized by "the love of the self, even to the contempt of God," while the heavenly city is a city created "by the love of God, even to the contempt of the self." Theologically, these definitions illustrate how the earthly and heavenly cities are categorized as such based on value and spiritual character of humanity. Philosophically, the earthly city is synonymous with the dominance of humanity over the world, while the heavenly city is a world governed by a metaphysical entity called God, where people (society) obey and praise the goodness of God. Politically, the earthly city is a place where rulers ("corruptible man") who "delights in its own strength" govern; the heavenly city, on the other hand, is the state of humanity when it was not still ridden with corruption and evil, a place where wisdom and respect dominates, and God takes precedence above all else.

St. Augustine establishes the existence of God through reason and logic, arguing that God's existence is manifested through the human, or individual: the free will and divine grace that humans have been given upon their birth. Similarly, St. Anselm attests to God's existence within humanity. However, while St. Augustine tried to establish God's existence through abstract concepts, St. Anselm did not attempt to prove God's existence; rather, he contends that God exists unquestionably, and questions regarding God's existence or non-existence is reason enough to argue that God is, in fact, bigger and more complex that human thought. Thus,….....

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