Differences Between Plato And Augustine

The Greek philosopher Plato and the North African theologian Augustine from Northern Africa are two of the most influential and remembered philosophers in history. Plato lived in Athens from 428 to 347 B.C. and wrote many pieces of literature based on his finding and thoughts, some of them include, The Apology, The Republic, and The Allegory of the Cave. Augustine from Hippo lived from 354 to 430 A.D. wrote several books, two of his most famous books is named, The City of God and Augustine: Account of His Own Conversion. Although both men walked this earth many years ago their thoughts and works still remain as great pieces of literature. By examining these philosophers work one can observe the differences and similarities between their worldviews …show more content…
Plato was an idealist and Augustine was a realist. Plato has this idea in his head of what the ideal version of the world should resemble. In an ideal society only a select few that were natural leaders and thus should have all the power and it would be good for the ignorant people to have a wise leader. He strongly believed politics and philosophy go together, and that a philosopher needs to have a passion for wisdom, truth, unselfishness, and gentleness. Plato proposes in The Republic that civilization or government should be organized in harmony with the needs of nature. “Those people who are driven by desire or food, possessions and sexual gratification, Plato said, should be farmers, tradesmen, or artisans. Those who are naturally courageous and assertive should be soldiers. And few who have the capacity for wisdom-the philosophers- should be entrusted with political power.” Plato learned from Socrates that reality needed to be idealised. Government had to be a certain way, a philosopher had to have certain characteristics and society should be structured in a strict …show more content…
One of them is, The Apology, it essentially means an explanation, in this “explanation” Plato seeks to discover what it means to be wise by asking crowds compelling questions about what it means to be wise. Socrates found that the poets “say many fine things, they know nothing of what they say” (77) and the artisans had a wealth of wisdom and thus were wise. The crafts men were wise in their individual trade, but were similar to the poets. He then came to the conclusion that God is wise and that humans’ wisdom is worth little or nothing. Plato believed that those knowledgeable in a variety of areas were wise. “power and capacity of learning exists in the soul already…the instrument of knowledge can only by the movement of the whole should be turned from the whole becoming into that of being, and learn by degrees to endure the sight of being, and of the brightest and best of being, or in other words, of the good.” At first, Augustine was into the idea of eloquence and how speakers could express their thought and persuade the crowd. Augustine went to Milan to observe Ambrose the bishop, paying special attention to the way that he spoke and the words that he used and not so much the message. Later on Augustine, he talks of the two cities, those who have faith in the higher city have wisdom and those who believe in the earthly city are selfish fools. Both Plato and