From: Anders Sandberg (asa@nada.kth.se)
Date: Tue Aug 13 2002 - 17:36:12 MDT
On Tue, Aug 13, 2002 at 01:27:11PM -0400, Dickey, Michael F wrote:
>
> Plato was also quite at odds with other greek philosophers, including
> Democritus and Aristotle. Plato ensured virtually none of Democritus books
> survived. Plato and Aristotle were quite at odds with their world views, if
> communsim is more based in Plato's republic idealogy of the elite ruling
> class then Aristotle's idealogies are to the opposite extreme. Not to
> mention the fact that even Ancient greece, the cradle of western
> civilaztion, did not embrace Plato's idealogies, instead we see it as the
> home of democracy. So whats more 'western', communism or democracy?
> Considering modern scientific inquiry is based aristolean logic, Id see
> Aristotle had far more influence on what is 'western' than Plato.
>From http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/litlinks/critical/plato.htm (just
selecting one philosophy page at random):
Plato (ca. 427-347 B.C.). The student of Socrates and the
teacher of Aristotle, Plato is singularly the most revered
thinker in Western civilization. As Alfred North Whitehead
stated, "All of Western philosophy is but a footnote to Plato
... his shadow falls over all of Western thought." Most of the
historically significant issues with which philosophy has been
concerned - the nature of being, the question of how we know
things, the purposes of right action, the structure of an
ordered society, the meaning of love and beauty - were issues
that he raised.
Sure, Aristotele has contributed a lot to science the last 500 years.
But Platonic idealism has had a profound influence on Christianity and
political philosophy, for nearly 2500 years. That Greece did not turn
into platonic republics does not tell us much, since the whole
eccleastical and mundane structure of the middle ages and onwards were
based on parts of his blueprint.
We can debate relative influence of philosophers, but the fact remains
that communism was developed from strands of thoughts stretching through
western philosophy. It is just as western as the enlightenment ideas.
Not that it matter whose fault it is. Bad ideas should be dismantled
regardless of pedigree.
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