Plato taught Aristotle and Socrates taught Plato
Both argued that no one knowingly
does evil, Socrates believed that if someone
knows what the right thing to do is, then they are going to do it….If they don’t do it, The evil person then is simply
ignorant or mistaken about what the right thing to do is.
………………........Me……………………….
Bad………………………………………Good
Good Plato said is a property that
all good things have n common. He also believed this was eternal, what was then
is the same for now, Then same for bad. Socrates believed that people
always naturally want to do the good, but because of ignorance aim at the bad.
Worst Cereal Killer, usually what they say is, what they were doing is
something what they would interpret of being Good. Helping the person, freeing
them, perhaps thinking that they were evil, perhaps they deserved to die,
Very rare that they say yes, it was a terrible action, but I did it
anyway. I.e. they generally aimed at the bad, but usually people tell
themselves a story and they are the good guys in the story,
They are simply ignorant about
the real truth about the matter is in this case, and they have mistakenly
identified something that is good which is not. simply got it backwards. They don’t
properly identify with the thing which is Good.
………………………………………………………………………………………
Aristotle denies that this is true. He believes that there are case
where people know what the right thing to do is, but simply don’t do it.
Persons wallet, with 100Euro,
persons name and address, but you choose to keep it… even a tax return, so you
know they don’t have a lot of money. You say, ah gee, I know I have to give it
back, but I don’t for what ever reason, you keep it for the new video game. I
know the right thing to do is, but, hey, I not going to do it….
If there are case like this, then
Socrates and Plato’s theory fail, they can’t be right…
The lesson for Aristotle is, from
these kinds of cases, person knows the right thing to do is, but fails to do
it, well the lesson for Aristotle is, being a good person is, not about knowing
something, but performing the right actions.
