Plato vs. Aristotle

Plato and Aristotle on Religion Plato and Aristotle are two of the most famous philosophers known to mankind. Plato was a classical Greek philosopher, who was mentored by Socratesand mentored Aristotle. Plato’s views were extremely influenced by his mentor, Socrates and was also influenced by what he believed was his mentor’s unjust death. Aristotle was also a Greek philosopher. He was mentored by Plato, and mentored Alexander the Great. Even though he was mentored by Plato, they do not necessarily share the same views on things. Plato and Socrates philosophized on a lot of the same subjects (bodies, personality, knowledge, freedom, morality, society, religion, immortality and fulfillment), as seen in the textbook. The subject that these two philosophers discuss that I will talk about in this paper will be religion. Plato was a polytheist. He believed that there were multiple gods. Plato seemed to be very concerned about how stories regarding the gods were portrayed. Plato advocated censoring any story told about the gods because children may hear these stories and be exposed to blasphemies. Plato wanted the censorship to occur in order to protect children from said blasphemies. Plato advised that the gods only be portrayed doing acts of good, and not be portrayed as changing (Pomerleau, 24). Plato also believes that our world was created because our universe is a world of change that consists of “coming to be and ceasing to be, but never fully real” (Pomerleau, 24). He states that since we are limited mortals, we cannot achieve precise, communicable knowledge of the creator. According to Plato, the creator must be good and devoid of selfishness which means that he wishes all things to be like himself (Pomerleau, 24). Plato believes that the gods are so superior that they do not need anything from us; therefore, we limited mortals need not bother trying to bribe the gods with sacrifices. All in all, Plato believes that religion establishes