PHIL2001: Ancient Greek Philosophy | Assessment 2: Comparative Analysis Essay

Course Overview and Context

This assessment is a core component of PHIL2001: Ancient Greek Philosophy (or equivalent POLI210: Classical Political Thought). It is designed to evaluate your ability to engage in textual exegesis and comparative philosophical analysis. Having explored the Socratic dialogues and Plato’s metaphysical framework, we now shift to the Aristotelian critique. This assignment requires you to move beyond summary and engage in the “Great Conversation” between the Academy and the Lyceum regarding the nature of reality and the attainment of virtue.

Assignment Brief: Plato’s Idealism vs. Aristotle’s Realism

Task Description

Write a 1,500-word comparative essay analyzing the divergent approaches to Epistemology and Ethics in the works of Plato and Aristotle. You must specifically address how Plato’s Theory of Forms informs his concept of the “Philosopher-King” in The Republic, and contrast this with Aristotle’s Empiricism and the “Golden Mean” as presented in the Nicomachean Ethics.

Core Requirements

• Thesis Statement: Provide a clear, argumentative thesis in the introductory paragraph that identifies the fundamental point of departure between the two thinkers.

• Primary Text Integration: You must utilize direct evidence from Plato’s Republic (Books VI or VII) and Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics (Book II).

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• Methodological Focus: Contrast Plato’s transcendentalism (the belief that truth exists in a separate realm) with Aristotle’s immanent realism (the belief that essence exists within the material object).

• Formatting: Follow the MLA 9th Edition style guide for all in-text citations and the Works Cited page.

• Submission: Upload as a .doc or .pdf via the Canvas/Moodle/Blackboard “Assessment 2” link.

Marking Rubric (Undergraduate Level 200/2000)

• Write a 4-to-6 page paper analyzing the divergence between Platonic Idealism and Aristotelian Realism, utilizing primary texts from the Republic and Nicomachean Ethics.

Sample Instructional Guidance

Aristotle fundamentally challenges the Platonic notion that virtue requires an apprehension of a transcendent “Form of the Good,” arguing instead that moral excellence is a disposition developed through habituation. While Plato suggests that the soul must turn away from the sensory world to find truth, Aristotle insists that the “Good” must be attainable through human action within the physical realm. This shift from a mathematical-metaphysical model of ethics to a practical, biological one marks the birth of empirical observation in Western social science. As noted in the Nicomachean Ethics, moral virtue is essentially a “mean” between two extremes of deficiency and excess, a state that is determined by a rational principle Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, 1107a.

 Resources and Works Cited

• Annas, Julia. Virtue Ethics. Oxford University Press, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1093/actrade/9780192843517.001.0001

• Fine, Gail. The Oxford Handbook of Plato. 2nd ed., Oxford University Press, 2019. https://www.google.com/books/edition/_/9m-WDwAAQBAJ

• Irwin, Terence. Aristotle’s First Principles. Oxford University Press, 2023 (Reprint). https://doi.org/10.1093/0198242905.001.0001

• Shields, Christopher. Aristotle. 3rd ed., Routledge, 2022. https://www.routledge.com/Aristotle/Shields/p/book/9780367431785