Pericles, Aristotle and Plato: Differing Views on Democracy

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Essay Assignment #1 Pericles, Aristotle and Plato: Differing Views on Democracy While everyone has their own opinion and is more than entitled to share it, most people tend to be influenced by other's beliefs and thoughts. Politics and opinions of leaders on the way in which a country should be run are often easy portals to access an impressionable mind. Throughout history, those with opposing viewpoints on democracy have often spoke up and shared their opinions with the world in hopes of being heard. Aristotle, Pericles and Plato have each taken a turn in doing so, and made their feelings very obvious to the people. All opinions were very different; Aristotle's being more of an open minded approach towards demorcracy (not completely dismissing the idea of it), Pericles' being in total agreement with it, and Plato being sarcastic and exceptionally opposed. In Pericles' "Funeral Oration", he speaks strongly in favor of a democratic nation and talks bout how and why that's important. He specifically mentions that personal freedoms are allowed because of their democratic way of life, but also conveys the point that while the people were free to live for themselves, they chose to live for one another as a whole as well, and all hoped to better the city as a positively functioning society. Throughout the address he praises Athenians, their military, and explains to the people how their system of government was to responsible for their success and that it set them apart from other nations. His belief in Democracy was understandable and is still held in a similar way today by many people. But while demorcracy does help immensely with the formation of a nation, Pericles failed to address that none of the positive attributes stemming from democracy would be possible without the positive actions of his people, with or without it. He didn't necessarily give credit

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