1. The human being is seen by different philosophers in a somewhat different light. Plato sees being human as a matter of balance, with an emphasis on the value of reason in ascertaining this balance. Socrates in The Republic analyzes human psychology, showing that the human mind is a tri-partite structure of reason, desire, and emotion. Socrates uses this truth to make a moral statement about the nature of the state and its relationship to the individual. Socrates says at the outset:
We are bound to admit that the elements and traits that belong to a state must also exist in the individuals that compose it. There is nowhere else for them to come from (Lee 209).
Socrates has already noted that the state has three natural constituents, wisdom, courage, and self-discipline, and he wants to show that these same three forces are to be found in the human soul:
We shall expect to find that the individual has the same three elements in his personality and to be justified in using the same language of him because he is affected by the same conditions (Lee 209).
Aristotle agrees with Plato that everything in this world is striving toward the Good. Aristotle created a teleological system in which everything had to be striving toward some ultimate and concrete perfection that exists as the Telos, or goal. Aristotle called this the Prime Mover, the cause of the universe, not as that which started the universe but as that to which the universe is moving as the Final Cause. It is pure activity, and the activity involved is pure thought. In the Nichomachean Ethics, Aristotle carefully considers the issue of responsibility and finds that the human being is indeed responsible for his or her actions and may be morally culpable even for unintended consequences. This applies both to the private conduct of individuals and to the conduct of legislators acting for the public good. For Aristotle, acting unjustly is tantamount to wis...