Aristotle's Form vs. Plato's Telos

Paper Summary:

This paper draws a comparison between Aristotle's "Telos" and Plato's "Form", arguing that the "material good" is the basis of politics. It also analyzes the differences in their philosophies and shows the discontinuity between their theories.

From the Paper:

"Greek thought has indisputably provided a cornerstone throughout the development of western civilization. Perhaps two of the most influential contributors to this thought were Aristocles, better known as Plato, and his pupil, the reader(1), Aristotle. Among them existed a traditionally non-sophist view of an ultimate truth which dominated many of their philosophies. These views, however, deviated from each other in even the most primal state, becoming Plato s Form and Aristotle s Telos, and affecting them towards often discontinuous political philosophies. Whereas Form dealt with an ultimate truth beyond the sphere of the physical plane, Telos centered on a final causality, an objects good, which manifested itself as the result of the nature of that object within the sphere of material existence. This led Plato on a search for a higher thought above traditional politics, and Aristotle on a search to provide the best possible path to achieving the final good within it."

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