Plato, St. Aquinas or Aristotle

Essay, Pages 5 (1114 words)

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One of the subject ideas we were provided to write about was how we thought Plato, St. Aquinas or Aristotle most represents my town/family which I intrigued me because during this time of year, around the holidays, everyone's thoughts turn to how can help provide for and protect our fellowman, how can we make sure all the children we know have gifts from Santa, how can we make sure that everyone has a special meal on Christmas Day, how can we help prevent someone spending time alone on such a special day?

Even though these problems exist now, in our time, they did not exist in Aristotle's time which was 384-322 BCE (Kenny & Amadio, 2018) and before the birth of Jesus Christ which is precisely why we celebrate and make sacred Christmas Day.

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However, according to Aristotle, these feeling should be reserved for just the Christmas holiday season, but should be without us and surround us every day of our lives.

Aristotle is quoted as stating "But, if all communities aim at some good, the state or political community, which is the highest of all, and which embraces all the rest, aims at the good in a greater degree than any other, and at the highest good" (Zarri, 1948).

I think what Aristotle is trying to say is that we (all of us on this planet, not just the largest of cities or smallest of the smallest of quaint country small towns with one stop sign not even a stop light) need to be concerned about the what we can achieve when we work together, not just our communities by globally, not just government levels but on personal, social levels as well.

This type of action will allow each of us to be more responsible in our actions while helping our fellow man and that, in turn, allows everyone to reach their full potential as a person. Because we can only reach our full potential when we do everything humanly possible to achieve our maximum benefit and help others achieve theirs.

I recently shared in this type of community support when I living in my previous home. A severe thunderstorm moved into the area, which we all knew about, however no one know the storm was going to be so intense that the three rivers would not be able to contain the rising water levels (Tomazic, 2016).

As a result the entire flooded including schools, restaurants, supplemental housing, major roadways, farms, etc. The entire community pulled together to make sure everyone was fed, clothed, and safe. We all started cleaning the mud and debris from our homes and then our neighbors' homes and continued working down the block, then the next block, and then the next small section of town, etc.

Local businesses extended lines of credit for supplies and equipment to repair our homes or donate food so we could eat. Strangers opened their homes or opened their empty rental properties so people had someone to take a shower and get a decent night of rest.

Those that were unaffected by the floor in neighboring communities donated time, money, household items and started raising money to be disbursed to all flood victims. It is this kind of a society that I believe Aristotle would have been very proud to be part of. Patriarchal society (village) being responsible to and helping out each other than is the second stage which is that of self-preservation and a natural society (Zarri, 1948).

With regard to Aristotle's view and the current government structure in the United States, I think it is similar to what Aristotle had in mind.

A quote by Professor W. D. Ross, "Aristotle did good service to political thought by insisting that the state does not exist merely by convention but is rooted in human nature; that the natural is to be found, in its truest sense, not in the origin of human life but in the goal towards which it moves; that civilized life is not a declension from the life of a hypothetical savage; that the state is not an artificial restriction of liberty but a mains of gaining it" (Zarris, 1948).

I believe this is accomplished in our current time by the petitioning and election of our government officials. When we elect our mayors, city council, magistrates, senators, state representatives all the way up to the President of the United States, we are support what Aristotle was speaking about.

It is up to us, the people who elected those officials to public office after taking their oaths, to monitor their activity. Ensure that they are doing what we want, ask or need them to do for the common good for everyone in that jurisdiction or state or country.

I know some people say that once we elect someone, if they aren't doing what we want them to do that we can't do anything about. That is the wrong way to think. We do have an outlet that we use to either confirm that we like what they are doing or if they aren't they can be replaced just as quick and easy (although it may take a few years) but it is called Election Day.

If more people would get involved in the election process that the United States has and either reward or punish those in political power, maybe, just maybe that political realm of the United States wouldn't be as corrupt as it has become.

Man is a political by nature, we all have brains that form thoughts and opinions which are transferred into sounds that become words and sentences that relay our thoughts to others. We are the only creatures on Earth who have this ability to communicate what we think and feel to others.

It is this individualism that is a good thing, not a bad thing. I saw embrace it, share your thoughts on Election Day, support a leader that you believe will do good for everyone not just line his pockets and increase his salary while denying an increase to social security recipients.

While you vote someone it who will work for America, reject or discharge someone who has an ulterior agenda and is more worried about what they will get out of their time in government rather than how they will be remembered or what their ongoing legacy in government will be.

References

Kenny, A. J. P. & Amadio, A. H. (October 09, 2018). Aristotle. Encyclopaedia Britannica. Retrieved on December 12, 2018 from
Tomasic, J (August 30, 2016). Fayette County hit hard by flooding; Connellsville declares state
of emergency. WPXI News. Retrieved on December 12, 2018 from
Zarri, J. (July 16, 1948). Aristotle's Theory of the Origin of the State. Retrieved on December 7, 2018 from 2012/10/Aristotles-Theory-of-the-Origin-of-the-State-DRAFT-2-PDF.pdf