Aristotle versus Plato - the ultimate philosophical smackdown
The debate has raged since Ancient Greece and it still shapes how we think and live. Who got it right? Aristotle or Plato? It's the ultimate philosophical smackdown. What is reality? Aristotle claimed that knowledge of reality was based on the material world. Plato argued just the opposite. Observations of the physical world are deceptive, he said.
The true nature of reality is hidden and separate from our material world. It's hard to deny that we live in a modern consciousness dominated by Aristotle's day. The value of Platonic truths has taken a backseat to a world system based on materialism and raw power within the physical world. A person's worth in society is measured by the money they make, the size of their home and the car they drive. A nation's stature is based on the size of their weapons arsenal and economic output. The Platonic value of transcendent values such as the Form of the Good, is relinquished to the recess of our consciousness.
Yet we know it's there back there in the recess. It's not going away. We know we are stuck in a world run on Aristotle but the Platonist view has a stickiness, an intractability that can't be removed from the human condition. Plato believed that the Form of the Good was the ultimate object of knowledge. Humans are compelled to pursue the good and there's no way they can do this without journeying beyond the confines of Aristotle's material world.
In my mystery novel Employee of the Year, the hero Temo McCarthy is a rank-and-file call center employee in a corporate world run by the rules of material wealth and physical power. He is a lonely, humble man compelled to pursue the good in a society that does not value it. His quest is not a new one, it's a journey we've been making for thousands of years.
I write mysteries because life on earth is inherently mysterious. The eternal smack down between Aristotle and Plato cuts to the core of humanity's mysterious subtext. We need Aristotle's world to cloth us and feed us and perpetuate our species. But we also need Plato's world to fulfill our compunction to pursue the good.
The true nature of reality is hidden and separate from our material world. It's hard to deny that we live in a modern consciousness dominated by Aristotle's day. The value of Platonic truths has taken a backseat to a world system based on materialism and raw power within the physical world. A person's worth in society is measured by the money they make, the size of their home and the car they drive. A nation's stature is based on the size of their weapons arsenal and economic output. The Platonic value of transcendent values such as the Form of the Good, is relinquished to the recess of our consciousness.
Yet we know it's there back there in the recess. It's not going away. We know we are stuck in a world run on Aristotle but the Platonist view has a stickiness, an intractability that can't be removed from the human condition. Plato believed that the Form of the Good was the ultimate object of knowledge. Humans are compelled to pursue the good and there's no way they can do this without journeying beyond the confines of Aristotle's material world.
In my mystery novel Employee of the Year, the hero Temo McCarthy is a rank-and-file call center employee in a corporate world run by the rules of material wealth and physical power. He is a lonely, humble man compelled to pursue the good in a society that does not value it. His quest is not a new one, it's a journey we've been making for thousands of years.
I write mysteries because life on earth is inherently mysterious. The eternal smack down between Aristotle and Plato cuts to the core of humanity's mysterious subtext. We need Aristotle's world to cloth us and feed us and perpetuate our species. But we also need Plato's world to fulfill our compunction to pursue the good.
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