Comparison of Plato and Aristotle's Works: The Allegory of the Cave and Nicomachean Ethics

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BIG IDEAS
Abundant of ancient thinkers have contributed to society with moral theories that are
concerned with the good life for human beings or happiness. The great thinkers have indeed
presented with ethical thinking associated with human life. Two of the greatest thinker of ancient
days was Plato and Aristotle (Herman 25). The paper aims to compare and contrast the works of
the two famous philosophers by their work, The Allegory of the Cave and Nicomachean Ethics.
The essay will discuss the two well-known works that are mentioned above separately followed
by the ways the two great works of the two great thinkers contribute to society and help finding
happiness.
According to Findlay (101), The ‘Allegory of the cave’ is a theory concerning human
perception. According to Plato, the knowledge that is gained by mere senses are only opinions,
they are not real knowledge. In order to gain real knowledge, an individual must use
philosophical reasoning. In The Allegory of the cave, Plato presents three people manifesting
ones who use gain knowledge through senses and one who gain knowledge with philosophical
reasoning. According to Andersen, the main idea is to show people mistake sensory knowledge
for truth and people who genuinely see the truth. The three prisoners in the cave tied in a way
where they can only see the stonewall in front of them. Since the prisoners are in the cave having

never seen the outer world, they perceived the world with the shadows that they saw in front of
them. They played guessing games by identifying objects passing shadows. They would make
guesses and perceive the world in their own way. One of the prisoners then escape and find the
world in an entirely different condition. It was then he realised that his idea of the world was
different until he escaped from the cave. The guessing game played by them were useless alike
his former life in the cave. His intellectual journey begins with every discovery he made and
started understanding his new world. When he returned to the cave and informed other
prisoners, other prisoners denied believing his findings. Also, they threatened to kill him if he
tries to set them free (Kirsch and Bloom 55).
According to Polansky (35), Nicomachean ethics is a philosophical inquiry that revolves
around the nature of the good life for a human being. The book is considered one of the most
influential books of moral philosophy. The book is undoubtedly famous for approximately all the
philosophers have discussed the book. Aristotle raises questions in regard to good life and
happiness in this specific book. The theory involves the question of virtues through which one
gets the lead towards the right, just and meaningful life. Aristotle presents questions regarding
the ways one should act, the ways one should live. According to Aristotle, a man must act and
perform its activity according to reason. The reasoning is the key factor that should be guiding
the decisions of man. Also, according to Aristotle, the actions should be guided by the ethics and
man should perform ethic based activities. For Aristotle, the outcomes override the intention
where the outcome means “good is the end”. Nicomachean ethics is divided into ten books each
presenting theories on human life and happiness. Firstly he discusses the purpose of life where he
posits that good is the supreme goal of life. There are three kinds of happiness according to
Aristotle involving pleasure, politics and meditation that are established in a hierarchy. Aristotle