Today's pod/videocast is a Clash of the Titans. In the near corner we have the Athenian Assassin, Plato, student of Socrates, who put words into his teacher's (Socrates's) mouth to give his own ideas credibility. In the opposite corner we have the Macedonian Madman, Aristotle, teacher of Alexander T. Great and inspiration of St. Thomas "the Dumb Ox" Aquinas, who took the championship from the Manichean Siger the Brabant Battler with his Analogy of Being.
Plato stands by his notion that ideas have an existence independent of the human minds that conceive them, and that the task of becoming more fully human involves conforming human nature to an idea off in the æther somewhere. Aristotle challenges with his notion that ideas have no existence independent of the human minds that conceive them, and that the task of becoming more fully human involves conforming our ideas (and actions) to human nature the best we can.
Plato wants to abolish liberty and private property and conform all life to his ideals. Aristotle wants to define life, liberty, and private property, and discern the good in human nature that each person must develop.
It's a fight to the finish!
Just for fun, correlate Plato's thought with socialism, that of Aristotle with capitalism, and that of Aquinas with the Just Third Way of Economic Personalism.
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