Are You a Platonist or an Aristotelian?

Aristotle also felt strongly that virtue requires action; mere noble intentions are not enough. We are social creatures; a solitary life is not worth living. Our personal happiness, then, was linked to the welfare of the community. With a population consisting of individuals engaged with thinking and discriminating and working out for themselves th

anything.For the great psychologist Carl Rogers, human optimality came from closing the gap of incongruence – between what a person is and could potentially be. According to Rogers, the ‘good life’ is lived by the ‘fully functioning person’:“This process of the good life is not, I am convinced, a life for the faint-hearted. It involves the stretchi

There is something of Aristotle in all of this: identifying our highest aim (liberty rather than virtue) through what makes us unique, and then working towards it, using reason and human faculties to steer the path. Liberate yourself, live freely, and find fulfilment and happiness through that process.

are what we repeatedly do,” Aristotle said, “therefore, excellence is not an act but a habit.” The Stoics add to that that we are a product of our thoughts (“Such as are your habitual thoughts, such also will be the character of your mind,” Marcus Aurelius put it). Think about your activities of the last week as well as what you have planned for to