Plato is the essential Buddha-seeker who appears again and again in each generation, moving onward and upward toward the 'one.' Aristotle is the eternal motorcycle mechanic who prefers the 'many.'
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Plato is like a seeker of unity while Aristotle is like a mechanic of multiplicity.
- In plain terms
- Plato seeks one truth; Aristotle studies many things.
- What can you take from it?
- Some seek unity while others analyze diversity.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- Do you seek unity or diversity?
- How do you approach the world?
Another view
The analogy oversimplifies both philosophers complex views.
More from Plato
With regard to this question modern physics takes a definite stand against the materialism of Democritus and for Plato and the Pythagoreans. The elementary par…
Permalink to quote #78 Friendship in the Greek tradition, in the Roman tradition, in the old tradition, was always viewed as the highest point which virtue can reach. Virtue, meaning…
Permalink to quote #80 The safest general characterization of the European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato.
Permalink to quote #77
Related quotes
Pluralism lets things really exist in the each-form or distributively. Monism thinks that the all-form or collective-unit form is the only form that is rationa…
William JamesWilliam James quote #7 All differences in this world are of degree, and not of kind, because oneness is the secret of everything.
Swami VivekanandaSwami Vivekananda quote #30 Plato is the essential Buddha-seeker who appears again and again in each generation, moving onward and upward toward the 'one.' Aristotle is the eternal motorc…
Robert M. PirsigRobert M. Pirsig quote #41