Two figures in Western thought loom higher than any others: Aristotle and Plato. Together, they have inspired and influenced people across the ages. However, they have appealed to two starkly different types of intellectuals: the merchant and the slave master.
Plato
Plato lived in Athens some 2,400 years ago and has left a lasting mark on our civilization. His grand idea was that the reality we observe with our senses is not objective, but a cheap and dirty copy of an ideal world of forms living up in idea heaven.
According to Plato, only a refined class of philosophers has access to this world of forms through mystical revelation. Therefore, he proposed a society where property, women, and children were communally owned. The state is governed by elite of philosopher-kings, who rule over the ordinary less intelligent, people.
The first group of people who were attracted to Plato’s philosophy was the slave master. For them, it was natural to think that working with your hands and body is something cheap and dirty, something less than real. The masters looked out into the fields far away and saw these lesser beings – their slaves – work and become filthy. Inside their own homes, they could live a life far removed from the toils of their slaves – a more truthful, elevated, pure, clean, and noble life.
The idea that these privileged people had greater access to the truth came naturally to them. They liked the idea of being a ruling class because it validated what they already did to their slaves.
Aristotle
Plato’s most famous student was Aristotle, who rejected almost everything he learned from his teacher. Aristotle believed that the world of the senses was real and that the forms were not in idea heaven, but part of reality. These forms in-formed matter and brought them in-formation – information.
No mystical revelation was needed; anyone could do it through observation and reason. Aristotle saw life as a process of perfection. The individual could build good moral habits, which he called virtues, and the emotional reward for becoming a better person was happiness. A good character did not come easily. It required hard work over a long life.
His philosophy especially appealed to working intellectuals, exemplified by the merchant. A merchant works intellectually with numbers and information but does not shy away from physical labor. In England, these merchants were such busy workers that their trade was called busy-ness – business.
The merchant typically did not own slaves, but dealt with other people through mutual respect. Aristotle’s philosophy resonated deeply with their moral character.
The Ruling Class
The battle between Plato and Aristotle has raged throughout the centuries. During the Renaissance and the Enlightenment, Aristotle came to dominate intellectuals. His philosophy guided people like Thomas Aquinas, Galileo Galilei, Francis Bacon, Isaac Newton, and the Founding Fathers. In one sense, The United States could be called the first Aristotelian country on Earth.
However, in the 20th century and beyond, Aristotle’s influence has been waning. Plato’s ideas are returning with full force through postmodernism, critical theory, and the radical left. It typically happens when a privileged upper class becomes too detached from labor and reality that they start despising ordinary working people and view them as slaves and deplorables to be loathed and exploited.
Who will win the fight over America’s future: the merchants or the slave masters? Only time will tell.
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Read more from Caroline Adana.
