Plato and Aristotle Essay -- Philosophy Essays Wellness

Plato and Aristotle Plato and Aristotle have two distinct views on wellness. However, severally mans opinion on wellness is forthwith tied in to his respective opinions on the idea of imitation as a form of knowledge. Their appreciation or lack thereof for tragedy is in fact directly correlated to their own perspective on wellness and emotion. Firstly, it is important to consider each mans view of wellnessthat is how does each man go about addressing emotional stability. One important consideration is the approach Plato takes in relation to Aristotle. It is this approach that we will see actually mirroring in the midst of how they treat emotional well-being and their tolerance for imitation.In order to understand this hypothesis that each thinkers handling of wellness is representative of how they distribute imitation (and thus, representation), we need to step back and examine how in fact each gentleman approaches the question of emotional stability and happiness. For Plato, as defined in the Republic, emotion is to be suppressed. Speaking of poetry, he says Wed be right, then to delete the lamentations of famous men (63). The idea of deletion is exactly what he is after. Taking something quite real, very much a part of the present moment, and with the swipe of an eraser, dimissing it as gone. In poetry, it is called deletion, and the words are no longer on the page. In psychology, it is called repression, and the concepts suggested for deletion are instead relegated to swell in the caverns of ones mind. Plato speaks of emotion in poetry at other times as something we should expunge (61). Again, entrenched in his linguistics is a conscious hat tip to repression, to keeping emotionbe that joy, sadness, despairout of highe... ...fact directly connect to his understanding of wellness, and the need to have an emotional release as a part of that wellness.What can then be steeped out of these observations? It becomes apparent that Plato and Aristotle do in fac t have different views on how to reconcile wellness and these different views are directly linked to their approach to imitation. For Plato, who believes in deleting and suppressing emotion, imitation is a thingamabob much too emotional for his support. The Aristotelian view that emotion is in fact a natural part of life, knowledge, and our own wellness translates in to his toleration (if not always full embrace) of imitation. While different, the two men reconcile the problems of wellness in terms of the knowledge they deem acceptable. Works CitedPlato. Republic. Translated by Grube, G.M.A. Hackett. minute of arc Ed. Indianapolis, 1992.