Aristotle Versus Plato

After reading both Aristolte and Plato, my views on several topics changed. In my opinion, Aristotle was a much more eye opening read. Aristotle talked a lot more about dealing with problems and different situations. For example, Plato really only discussed justice. Whereas, Aristotle talked about how in life there is a Golden Mean to everything. This means that no matter what you or I do, there is a perfect balance, that if achieved, makes you better at something. I also feel that his argument that experience is more beneficial to a person than knowledge is much better. I still think that there is that balance between knowledge and experience that needs to be met. This is part of Aristotle’s Golden Mean that needs to be mentioned. I feel like Aristotle somewhat contradicted himself. He says there is a Golden Mean between everything. So, doesn’t that mean that there should be a mean between experience and knowledge to be good at something? Another argument that Aristotle brought up that appealed to me was his view on a human beings purpose in life. Plato decided that a human’s purpose in life was determined at birth. In my opinion, this isn’t true. Aristotle seems to argue that a human’s purpose is to be happy. This is what every human strives for. Happiness is the final goal that a person usually strives to achieve, and it is pursued for its own sake, nothing else. Aristotle seems to be much more open to the idea that each person is different, and because of that, there is a different purpose for each person. A person’s purpose is to reason, and it is not set at birth. Aristotle’s arguments appeal a lot more to me than Plato, and even though I feel like Aristotle’s arguments appeal to me more, Plato makes some good arguments too. I like how he compares the soul to a city. He lays out his explanation in the three parts well. Reason and the Guardians need to control each part so that the whole is held together. Both of these philosophers make several good points, but Aristotle wins the battle in my mind.