International Relations Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

International Relations - Essay Example He was known to be an Athenian; his generation came immediately after that of the Socrates. Although he was not the conversation leader, his dialogue features the Socrates. Plato has the political doctrine attributed to him, it was mainly obtained from the statesman, the laws and even from the republic Taylor, (121-122). He focused mainly on the following; that living a good life is considered to be our actions final end, which is individuals pursuing happiness in life. Plato also highlights that an individual having a good life depend on utilizing personal skills and abilities and that of other different external goods. He further adds that all these require individuals to have virtues. Virtues on the other hand forces individuals to have the knowledge of the good. Plato concludes that the search of happiness required an individual to possess the knowledge of good. Thus through his various contributions Plato is perceived to play a key role in the establishment of the ancient d the medieval political theory. In bringing about the philosophy, polis also resulted in what Aristotle referred to as being two lives. This included the life of politics and that of philosophy. There were several issues that needed clarification and it included; whether philosophers could conduct themselves politically, whether they could be involved in the normal politics in the current regimes or come up with their own, and also if they were suppose remain purely philosophical without getting involved in politics. Considering the above questions, the philosophical life of Socrates was considered as having been involved in politics before experiencing death philosophically. However for both Plato and Aristotle they perceived politics as being less divined and considered it to be less attractive as compared to studying the world truth which to them was extensive. Even though philosophy may handle issues on politics its major task is more as compared to that of politics. It is important to understand that those who established the earlier political philosophy were focused in differentiating and making philosophy independent from the ordinary actions of politics. This does not necessarily imply that they did not possess ordinary intentions of politics, but rather to clearly state that the establishment of political philosophy was meant to problematized the ordinary political life value. Considering the conception of the modern state it greatly varies with the polis philosophy. There is no clear difference between the state and the political life. It is even difficult to determine which one is above the other, which in reality the state should be superior. According to Plato a political community which is just is structured in a manner where every citizen gets an appropriate opportunity to make contribution for the sake of the communities to benefit. Hence, individuals should have virtues which include social virtues, and an individual can attain this through the the oretical teaching and through education provided. The knowledge of the good according to Plato has different ways; it includes the different modes where an individual’s character is trained and the theoretical knowledge obtained. This consists of a particular type of knowledge considered to be of second-order which mostly concerns the appropriate logical patterns and the given criteria used particularly in the epistemic quality of beliefs evaluation. True reality is not always obvious to majority of us mainly because of how we conduct our