Plato, Aristotle, and the Political Landscape of the Present

Plato, Aristotle, and the political landscape of the past are all decidedly far removed from our current place in time and space. The works of the former two philosophers, and the political ecosystem established two millennia ago can appear too foreign to retain any relevance to today’s society. Though, I argue that these thinkers’ insights into political philosophy can serve as support for addressing our own political challenges either indirectly, or in some cases directly. Few would contest that in the United States we face a variety of substantial difficulties concerning the wellbeing of our political system. In fact, a project may even be executed solely with the aim to identify these issues. However, it is not the objective of this project to accomplish the above; it is not to be a comprehensive review of the issues that have seeped into our political infrastructure but rather, my project will be a constructive synthesis, a threading of sorts, between the political theory of the past, namely that of Plato and Aristotle, and the state of polity at present. The influence of these thinkers, and the value of their philosophy as it relates to political theory will become evident as not only relevant artifacts, but those that are wholly imperative for our consideration concerning the political landscape of the present. After all, it may well be incumbent on us to engage in the rumination of political theory if we are, as Aristotle states, naturally political animals