Socrates, Plato and Aristotle cannot be considered as members of a same philosophical movement.

Essay by duaneliftinUniversity, Bachelor'sA, December 2006

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While they were either teachers or students of each other and were from the same location and era, Socrates, Plato and Aristotle, were different. It has been suggested that they are from the same philosophical movement, but despite their similarities, they had very different ideas and focuses in their work. Socrates, Plato and Aristotle each had their own ideas and direction with their philosophy and had different directions in their thinking.

Socrates, the first of these great philosophers was an amazing thinker, but never wrote anything down. It was up to his student Plato to do this later on, on his behalf. Socrates believed that he was so wise because he was aware of his ignorance, unlike those around him. These people were interested in the appearance of truth while Socrates was interested in truth itself (Miller 1998, 9). Socrates focused on ethics rather than the physical world.

He was more focused on one's actions than why they are what they are or why things are the way they are. He wanted to focus on who someone was and to consider the meaning of what they did, how they acted. (Coffin 2005, 133) Socrates felt that what was important is to act properly in order to make us people who are better-off. "He suggests that what is to be considered a good act is not good because gods say it is, but is good because it is useful to us in our efforts to be better and happier people." (Boeree 2000) Therefore what is good or bad is decided upon by thinking about life, not by any outside sources. He even believed that these thoughts were higher than the Law (Boeree 2000). Socrates was focused on the discovery or knowledge and was obsessed with understanding life and the...