Plato is hard to understand, but really fascinating once you internalize what he's saying.
Aristotle's writing style is much easier to understand, but the guy's just plain boring.
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5 comments:
I still don't get why everybody thinks that Aristotle is so much easier to understand. I think I have a Socratic mind or something, because I GET Plato but Aristotle just frustrates me. It's been a long time since I was frustrated by a book.
Isn't the writing style's ease usually more dependent on the translator?
Aristotle... Well, actually, there's understanding him and then there's following him. I recall last time I tried reading him every individual point made sense but where he was going on the whole always seemed vague. Then I hear that them categories, moral philosophy, and whatnot that I think is genius come from Aristotle and I'm like "How did you pull that out of him exactly?" But then, maybe I got a bad translation that was especially unclear on the whole fitting together while being easy on the individuals. It's quite possible.
Also, maybe Plato seems more interesting because we don't hear much about his ideas because a lot of them are wrong. (Though I must insist that Socrates, while hardly infallible, on the other hand is intellectual kick-a.)
I guess I was just frustrated with how pointlessly repetitive Aristotle can be. He's making one simple point, but reiterating every step along the way three times!
I just didn't enjoy philosophy in general. I did enjoy Aquinas, however.
Have you read Plato's Allegory of the Cave?
Keep in mind that these guys weren't simply developing or restating ideas that had come before them. In large part, they were covering new ground, so they had to guide students step by step through their thinking processes.
They set the stage for Western philosophy, and in the thousands of years since their time, there's been few if any minds to match them.
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