Existences Relation to Self

Plato, Aristotle, Sartre, these three great minds all pondered this long ago each reaching a separate conclusion. Plato felt that owning objects is bad for character, Aristotle thought it developed character, and Sartre came to the thought that ownership includes the intangible such as skill and knowledge. Are any of them right, are any of them wrong, or is there an aspect that makes them both right and wrong accordingly?

Plato, he was a philosopher from Athens during the periods of Ancient Greece, a time of Political turmoil. He lived through a war, tyrants, and explored the world, this showed him the greed of people and how it brings harm to those around them. It’s due to these tyrants that he believed that owning objects are bad for character as they killed countless people over mere items, holding their ownerships of items over others ownership of their lives. After all he met people who helped others with what they owned and lived without being overly greedy. As such it’s more accurate to say that it’s more of not letting the things you own go and greediness for more is what makes bad character.

As for good character Aristotle believed the opposite of Plato thinking that owning objects built it rather than bringing it down. Like Plato, Aristotle was also an Ancient Greek philosopher albeit from a different generation. Logic, reasoning, understanding, this was Aristotle’s focus, and it shows in how he acted. The reason why people tend to greed for more and go for it is they lack knowledge of the repercussions that it’ll incur, but during Aristotle’s time people learned and worked for the benefit of others. It’s because of this that Aristotle and Plato have opposite thoughts, one lived through civil unrest and the other through an age of peace.

But they both lived long ago, what about the thoughts of a more modern philosopher such as Sartre? He was born and lived in France from 1905 to 1980 dealing with Marxism and existentialism as his philosophical focus. For understanding, Marxism is about giving an alternative to solve the flaws for capitalism, and existentialism is wondering about our existence. As such, while he accepts owning of physical things, he also views having skills and knowledge as a type of owning as well. You see high class people own stuff to make their character, or self. While the poor, everyday person owns is made of the skills, and knowledge that they own. An example of this is a hunter owning their knowledge of animals and how to catch them, as such they understand themselves by what they know and can do rather than what objects they have.

Reflecting on this all, it’s my belief that they’re all right in their philosophy. Plato and Aristotle’s philosophies go together like two sides of a coin, heads and tails, one side the good that can be done and the other the bad that can happen. In this regard Sartre thinks more about the flow of money with how people own their own abilities and actions. Personally I feel that owning objects, knowledge, and skill all just offer a chance to show and make your character.

“Rodin’s Thinker” by steven n fettig is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.