Aristotle

         Aristotle is known as the brilliant student of Plato and tutor of Alexander the Great.  He is also known for establishing his own school named Lyceum. And he is also accountable for the saying “Man by nature is a political animal”.

             He is said to have embraced Plato’s position, however, his Telos differ or somehow contrasted Plato’s Telos. Aristotle’s telos is immanent, internal and inherent. He believed that everything is teleological, everything has their own purpose. For example, a paper, its purpose is for writing or for wrapping. At some point, I thought of opposing Aristotle’s philosophy, because before I have always asked my mom why God created things of no use, like ants, flies, mosquitoes, and cockroaches. But when I knew that there’s this one person who believed that everything has a purpose, I tried to think again. However, I still don’t know the specific purpose of those four I mentioned, but I have this theory that maybe, their purpose is not associable to humans, and maybe their purpose is simply just within themselves. This relates me to the next philosophy of Aristotle, the nature of man.

Aristotle believed that there are three types of soul, vegetative soul, sensitive soul and human soul. He believed that what distinguishes man from plants and animals is our capacity to reason out and that man by nature is a political animal. Every man really can reason things out, however, I believe that not all man can reason out well.

         He also believed that the ergon of man is to use his reason to have a happy life. However, there is also such thing as truly happy life which can only be attain if one uses his reason well.

Aristotle also believed that women should follow what men dictates and women must be submissive to men. As a person, or should I say as a woman, its more on I must disagree. Well at first, yes, I thought of opposing his statement, for I believe in gender equality. Nevertheless, I could not ignore the fact that men really are stronger than women, both physically and emotionally. However again, I personally believe that women are nicer than men, women are less cruel than men and that women are careful than men. In reality, we can easily notice how men dominate the highest positions in the government, from the president, to the vice president to the senators and even up to the congressmen.

            He believed that a household consists of a man, a woman a child and a slave. Maybe he is coming from a general perspective, for in reality, not all household has a slave. However, even a slave is not present, there will still be one in the household that will rule and be ruled.

He believed that ethics can be link to politics and that there is a relationship between man and state. He believed that men can only live a truly happy life in the context of polity, and this I also support. For I believe that there is always a need of peace and order, and to achieve peace and order there is a need for someone who can rule.