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Comparison Of Plato And Aristotle's Political Theories

        To compare the political theories of two great philosophers of
politics is to first examine each theory in depth. Plato is regarded
by many experts as the first writer of political philosophy, and
Aristotle is recognized as the first political scientist. These two
men were great thinkers. They each had ideas of how to improve
existing societies during their individual lifetimes. It is necessary
to look at several areas of each theory to seek the difference in
each.

        The main focus of Plato is a perfect society. He creates a
blueprint for a utopian society, in his book The Republic, out of his
disdain for the tension of political life (Hacker, 24). This blueprint
was a sketch of a society in which the problems he thought were
present in his society would be eased (Hacker 24). Plato sought to
cure the afflictions of both human society and human personality
(Hacker 24). Essentially what Plato wants to achieve is a perfect
society.

        Aristotle, unlike Plato, is not concerned with perfecting
society. He just wants to improve on the existing one. Rather than
produce a blueprint for the perfect society, Aristotle suggested, in
his work, The Politics, that the society itself should reach for the
best possible system that could be attained (Hacker 71). Aristotle
relied on the deductive approach, while Aristotle is an example of an
inductive approach (Hacker 71). Utopia is a solution in abstract, a
solution that has no concrete problem (Hacker 76). There is no solid
evidence that all societies are in need of such drastic reformation as
Plato suggests (Hacker 76). Aristotle discovers that the best possible
has already been obtained (Hacker 76). All that can be done is to try
to improve on the existing one.

        Plato's utopia consists of three distinct, non-hereditary
class systems (Hacker 32). The Guardians consist of non ruling
Guardians and ruling Guardians. The non-rulers are a higher level...