Comparison and Contrast of Plato and Aristotle: The Allegory of the Cave and Nicomachean Ethics

This essay discusses the comparison and contrast between Plato and Aristotle, focusing on their works, The Allegory of the Cave and Nicomachean Ethics. It explores their views on knowledge, ethics, and the ultimate goal of human life. Both philosophers emphasize the importance of virtues and reasoning in achieving happiness.

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BIG IDEAS
The fact cannot be denied that the ideas of the past are crucial for the current thinking.
Although, in the present times some of the ancient theories and information may seem obsolete,
it is on the basis of these ancient theories, the modern theories have developed (Katz, Lazarsfeld,
and Elmo). Therefore, the contribution of the great thinkers cannot be ignored. The great thinkers
have given the world ways to look at the world from different perception and even develop their
perception on the basis of various factors. Two of the great thinkers still studied for their relevant
work are Plato and Aristotle. The essay aims to discuss the two thinkers and conduct a
comparison and contrast between the two thinkers. In order to compare and contrast between the
two thinkers, two of their popular work will be considered, The Allegory of the Cave and
Nicomachean Ethics.
Aristotle and Plato were philosophers in ancient Greece who studies several aspects of
life including matters of science, politics, ethics and more. Although many of the Plato’ works
only managed to survive the centuries, Aristotle’s contributions have been considered more
influential. Also, both of the philosopher’s works continue to have great historical value even
though they are considered less theoretically valuable in the contemporary times.

The Allegory of the cave is an allegory where the journey of mind is evaluated from darkness to
light. The word ‘cave’ is used in the allegory as the world of five senses that people acquire
through opinions (Blenkinsop and Beeman). These opinions are influences of others and their
influenced opinions. Person becomes free from the cave, individuals gets on the path of constant
upward path through the means of intellect, which is not based on persuasion of the senses. Plato
compares ordinary human existence to those prisoners who are chained in a cave. The chained
prisoners who reside in a cave do not have any other option but to be guided by their senses.
Their eyes are fixed on the wall and they are unable to move their head or body to any direction.
There is a large fire is behind these prisonsin between the fire and prisoners are a walkaway. In
the walkway various puppets and marionettes move which the prisoners used to observe. These
figures casts shadows that amongst the wall where the prisoners’ eyes would get locked. Also,
behind the cave is a road where people are walking, talking and playing. The noises from the
road were perceived to be noises from the shadows as per the prisoners. One day, one prisoner
escape from the cave and become exposed to the real world. It is then he realized that the all the
perception that he made by looking at the wall and the shadows are wrong. These were the
knowledge gained from the senses until escaped from the cave and realized that his perception
that was made on his sensory knowledge (Ng and Sheehan).
One of the best known works of Aristotle is the Nicomachean ethics. The work certainly
plays an important role in defining Aristotle’s main ethics in ten books which are understood
mainly through notes from his lectures at the Lyceum. These theories are based on morale and
human practices that help in achieving the goals in life. According to Aristotle, the main aim of
human life is to be happy. The book is considered as a philosophical inquiry to the nature of
good life that can be experienced by human being. Aristotle presents his views in regard to

human life where there exists some ultimate good that all human actions ultimately aim. The
essential features of ultimate good are that it is final, complete, self-sufficient and continuous
(Gellera). The main good toward which all human actions are motivated is explicitly and
implicitly aim is happiness. This is often refereed as blessed living or living well. It is important
to determine the nature of human happiness and in order to determine the nature of human
happiness it is important to understand the function as human being. According to Aristotle,
happiness is the ultimate goal. Human should perform actions that will give him happiness.
Money and wealth is not the goal of life and cannot fetch happiness. In order to live a happy life,
people should belong to the middle ground that would avoid excess in any aspect of life.
Courage, temperance, prudence,magnanimity, liberality, meekness, gentleness are the traits of
the wise Aristotle. Also, Aristotle presents two forms of justice that are important for achieving
the goal of human life, individual justice and global justice. There is nothing more important
than friendship according to Aristotle, for without friends no one would choose to live or have
any property (Prior).
According to Nightingale, Plato and Aristotle are among the most influential
philosophers. The similarities that can be observed between the two philosophers are very
prominent and can be traced in their theories. Both the philosophers believe that knowledge must
be real and should be real by reason. in the Allegory of cave, Plato tires to convey the message
that any knowledge that is gained through senses are not real or not cannot be called real until it
is discovered. Also, according to Aristotle an ideal man requires the intellectual virtues which are
the calculative reasoning. The prisoner who escaped from the cave is the representation of the
way human must gain knowledge. According to Aristotle, the theoretical philosophy comes to an
end by knowing the truth however, the end of practical philosophy is ‘not knowing but acting’.

The world must be experienced via the senses is obsolete and it is not fixed and unchanging
(Kraut). While Plato has presented the way one can become happy, Aristotle have presented the
ways to achieve happiness. Both the philosophers believe in virtues and emphasized on the
importance of virtues while carrying out action. For human life, virtue ethics are significant and
every human action should be guided by it. Also, both the philosophers believed that knowledge
should be gained through reasons and not through senses. Human should understand right and
wrong from the reasoning and logical thinking and perform with the virtues of ethics. Although
both the stories differ from each other they aim to similar goals but through different methods.
Nicomachean ethics and the allegory of the cave are the philosophical stories that convey lessons
for human life focusing more the human actions and less on theories. The difference between the
Nicomachean ethics and the allegory of the cave can be drawn from the fact that while Plato is
the concept of free will that is observed more on in Plato and not Aristotle.
As discussed above, the fact cannot be denied that the ideas of the past are crucial for the
current thinking. Although, in the present times some of the ancient theories and information
may seem obsolete, it is on the basis of these ancient theories, the modern theories have
developed. The Allegory of the cave is an allegory where the journey of mind is evaluated from
darkness to light. Nicomachean ethics are based on morale and human practices that help in
achieving the goals in life. According to Aristotle, happiness is the ultimate goal of human life
and in order to reach the ultimate goal, people need to understand the values of ethics and make
just decision. According to Plato, people must seek knowledge through exploration and
reasoning which will help them understand right from wrong. This guided action will help them
achieve the ultimate goal, happiness. The two philosophers have contributed to a great extent in
understanding the human life, the reason they are still studied.

References:
Blenkinsop, Sean, and Chris Beeman. "The Experienced Idea: Using Experiential Approaches to
Teach Philosophical Concepts." American Association of Philosophy Teachers Studies in
Pedagogy (2019).
Gellera, Giovanni. Nicomachean Ethics. Macat Library, 2017.
Katz, Elihu, Paul F. Lazarsfeld, and Elmo Roper. Personal influence: The part played by people
in the flow of mass communications. Routledge, 2017.
Kraut, Richard. "Levels of Argument: A Comparative Study of Plato's “Republic” And
Aristotle's “Nicomachean Ethics.”." (2016): 447-450.
Ng, Lynda, and Paul Sheehan. "Coetzee’s Republic: Plato, Borges and Migrant Memory in The
Childhood of Jesus." JM Coetzee’s The Childhood of Jesus: The Ethics of Ideas and
Things (2017): 83.
Nightingale, Andrea. "Sight and the philosophy of vision in Classical Greece: Democritus, Plato
and Aristotle." Sight and the Ancient Senses. Routledge, 2015. 68-81.
Prior, William J. Virtue and knowledge: An Introduction to ancient Greek ethics. Routledge,
2016.