Compare the Philosophical Views of Socrates, Plato and Aristotle

To begin comparing the philosophical views of Socrates, Plato and Aristotle, you should look first to the many similarities they share:

Socrates lived between 469 and 399 BC, Plato between 427 and 347 BC, and Aristotle between 384 and 322 BC. A handy mnemonic that will keep these three in chronological order involves simply putting their names in reverse alphabetical order.
One thing they all had in common was a thirst for knowledge.
They felt that reasoning and using your intellect would take you on the path to knowledge.
Knowledge was a goal of all philosophers but they arrived at it differently.
All three men felt that the pursuit of the truth and expanding your intellect were worthy pursuits for your life.

Search for Truth

All three philosophers were in search of the truth.

Socrates wanted his students to arrive at the truth by answering a stream of questions. In that way they examined the world around them and would, through deductive reasoning, arrive at the truth.
Plato felt that you needed a properly trained mind to arrive at the truth.
Aristotle relied more on sensory input and reason to arrive at the truth.

Three Schools of Thought

While looking at their similarities is important, to compare Socrates, Plato and Aristotle you also need to look at where they diverged and built upon each other's work. Each school of thought created took parts of the previous one and built on it and each had their own views on life, government, and the search for knowledge.

Socrates

Socrates was responsible for the method named after him, the Socratic Method.

It relies on guided questioning to help the student arrive at the truth through the answers.
This method defines deductive reasoning and relies on the student’s intellect and their quest for knowledge.
Socrates felt that a man who admitted he was ignorant was very wise and said, “The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.”
He also said, “The unexamined life is not worth living.”
He felt that most people never reach their full potential and that to be happy a person must keep his soul, his central core, healthy. That was done by self-examination and gaining wisdom.

Plato

Plato wrote down many of these dialogues Socrates had with his students, which was really important because Socrates didn’t commit his ideas to paper (or, if he did, none of the writings have survived.) Plato also had some of his own theories as well:

Plato’s real name was Aristocles. Plato, which means “broad,” was his nickname, probably because of his broad shoulders.
Plato believed that there was a higher world where perfect ideas existed and if you knew them then you knew the truth.
Politically, he did not trust democracy and felt that philosophers should rule and that there needed to be a blend of philosophy and politics. As he said, “The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men.” Plato’s most enduring and influential work is the book The Republic and a well-known quote from it is, “Necessity, who is the mother of invention.”

Aristotle

While Plato was more abstract, Aristotle was more logical. Aristotle was brilliant and wrote about many diverse subjects, including mathematics, government, metaphysics, and science.

He relied on reason and what can be gained from the senses.
He was practical and realistic in his approach to knowledge.
He is considered the grandfather of scientific method even though he did not conduct experiments.
As far as politics go, he felt the best form of government was a constitutional one. In the book Categories, he explained how to take physical descriptions of objects, classify them, and in that way, we could have a comprehensive view of the world and reality.

Aristotle said:

“The whole is more than the sum of its parts.”
“Those that know, do. Those that understand, teach.”
“Well begun is half done.”
“All virtue is summed up in dealing justly.”

So, now you know how to compare Plato, Socrates and Aristotle and you know some of the key features of the philosophies of each.