Kansas City daily journal. [volume] (Kansas City, Mo.) 1892-1897, 1897-01-09
And ARISTOTLE. !"
SUBJECT DISCUSSED BY THE GREEN
WOOD CLUB LAST NIGHT.
An Interesting Paper by Principal
Foster, of the DOuEInss SCHOOL,
East side Literary Society
Resumes Its Meetings.

plato and Aristotle was the subject of
the discussion of the Greenwood Club last
night. The paper on the subject was read
by r. w. Foster, principal of the Douglass
school. He said that the most known of
Plato is learned through his own writing.
HE shows himself quite a womans
rights nan in his Republic" said Mr..
Foster, but it seems he was so completely
absorbed in his great life work that he
never took the time nor spared the pains
to get married. Hence he had neither wife
nor children to write his biography. He
discussed love and the beautiful from one
of its phases, yet we hnd nothing to war
Iant us in the surrnise that he ever had
been Il lover. He has contributed much
to the department of philosophy. and has
made it difficult for even modern philos-
ophers to produce much that is entirely
new.
"Plato's greatest pupil was Aristotle who
carried on the philosophical movement,
which Socrates had started. to the high
est limit that It eve- reached in the an
clent world. He wrote in Il plain exact
nlethodical way. From a literary stand
point Plato was doubtless his superior
Aristotle possessed a wonderful power of
systematizinG; he collected all the results
OF the Ansient Spoesr'tttIort asia 80, 6oirl-
hined them into a coordinate system that
Tor nearly 1000 years he reigned supreme
In the schools. From u systematic stand
p0lnt, he was vastly superior TO Plato.
His aim was to reduce everything to a sell
ence, even philosophy. 1t is claimed how
ever, that Aristotle adopted the results OF
Plato and made them available to the
world.
Aristotle held that the state should edu
cate its citizens, the practice of the
hlgnest virtues was the element most need
ed IN the individual to fit him to better
subserve the purpose of the state; the GOOD
citizen being considered better than the
good man. Women were not considered
ri In AFfg glafa-
family relations. The women received
their education and training from the fam
liy. He would have the state educate only
males that were to he the foundation stone
upon which the state was to rest He
would not, like Plato. in his Republic ab-
sorb the individuality OF the family into
the state, nor would he sanction commun-
ism, yet he made provision for the public
tables similar to those in Plato's Republic
He maintained that the highest end of the
ethical training was to make the individ-
ual self-sufficing, the end of which was to
make a better citizen to subserve the pur-
pose of the state.
IF either Plato or Aristotle was religious
in the general acceptance of the term, L
have failed TO find it. Each spoke of 1t in
his ideal state, but there were no special
rules outlined for such services as WAS
done in the other departments of state
They seem TO have merely mentioned IL
as one of the necessary adjuncts. Both
were highly moral and lived lives above re-
proach. 1t is perhaps due to Plato to say
that he had Il higher idea of human life
and God than Aristotle. Aristotle was
tied to nature and could not get away from
it, while Plato was tied to the idea which
gave him the universe for his field Arts
totle believed the soul the form OF an or
ganized living body. He saw no other SUI
preme aim in life: no ether standard OF
happiness than the highest and most per-
feet activity of the soul during the span of
its years. Plato believed in the eternal exist
ence OF the soul. and that God is the con-
stant good. Plato's theory of God and
the human soul would not be far removed
from the modern Christianity had il the
idea of revealed religion expressed or i'm
piled in it,
In the general discussion of the subject
which followed the reading of the paper
Principal j. t. Buchanan, of the Central
high school, said that he was inclined to
believe Plato's theory regarding the human
soul was correct: that as IL would always
live in the future 1t must have lived from
the time of creation. passing through dif-
ferent animal bodies. He said the soul
was governed by its environment in the
physical body.