Take a close look at Raphael’s famous painting, “The School of Athens,” on p. 155 of the supplementary reading (you might want to find a larger image on-line to look at). Notice that in the center of the frame are Plato and Aristotle and notice further that Plato is pointing up, while Aristotle is pointing down. Many see this as a visual representation of their different philosophical attitudes: Plato is an idealist, in the sense that he is concerned with the perfect, the timeless truth; Aristotle is a naturalist, in the sense that he is more concerned with the actual and the practical rather than the ideal. You can see this difference in their intellectual preferences: Plato stressed the importance of mathematics, with its emphasis on intellectual investigation of pure ideas and relationships; Aristotle emphasized biology, with its emphasis on empirical observation of particular living creatures, in an attempt to discern patterns.
You can further see this difference, for example, in their metaphysics: for Plato, that which is the most real is the ideal Form (e.g., the ideal Form of a Dog), whereas for Aristotle, that which is the most real is the concrete individual substance (e.g., an actual, living, breathing dog, like Lassie).
In your discussions this week, you might want to think about this contrast between idealism and naturalism. How can you articulate the differences between these intellectual orientations? What are the strengths and weaknesses of each of them?
And of course feel free to raise any other questions or observations or reflections you would like.
