Brittany Rexroat 
Lacy Hanson I love seeing how much views differed and how rapidly they changed in the times of Plato and Aristotle. When I look at where the world is right now as far as developing new theories on things and new discoveries and inventions and it all seems like it is pretty stagnant. Seeing Plato descending from Socrates with these new views and then Aristotle coming off of that and developing a whole new perspective on life, souls, etc is encouraging.
I really love to look at the teacher/student relationship Plato and Aristotle had with each other and see how different their views are. I feel that today there is more encouragement towards accepting other people’s opinions with a blind eye rather than taking their opinions and forming ones of your own. Not to say that being inquisitive is frowned upon, but it seems that the goals of philosphers in the times of Plato and Aristotle were to grow in their knowledge of the world (both physical and nonphysical) whether it agreed or disagreed with those around them.
Taking Plato’s belief in reason and the mind “remembering” things and then comparing that to Aristotle’s view that the mind gains knowledge through experience–they look really different. It is really encouraging to see that different views can arise between teacher and pupil and yet both be accepted by different worldviews. For example, I can relate the mind remembering things to the Buddhist view of reicarnation whereas the mind gaining knowledge through experience is a very post modern Christian point of view.
Each of these philosophers brought new and refreshing ideas to the table which I think should be encouraging to people today to not just blindly accept the views of those bigger than us, but to morph them and make them make sense to us and how we see the world.
Taeyanna Pannell
12:42 pm, 02.02.11
This take on teacher/student relationship is one that is often overlooked and the student learns so much from the teacher and develops their own ideas and they end up disagreeing but they are still able to have the ability to accept others idea and not criticize them for having different views. We should take the ideas and not completely throw them out. Making them make sense is something that is well worth our time.
Alison
12:52 pm, 02.02.11
Socrates and Plato had a similar teacher/student relationship. I feel that both pairings gave us fine examples of how to learn without being indoctrinated– allowing others to contribute to our knowledge while keeping our minds our own. Thanks for bringing up this example that we can learn from.
Adrienne Lackey
12:52 pm, 02.02.11
I agree that we need to take a leaf from the the relationship between Plato and Aristotle. If they can find a way to agree but disagree on the same topics people start wars over, why cant we as Christians do the same?
Candice Watson
1:32 pm, 02.02.11
It does feel stagnant at times, but it is hard to see change when you’re in the middle of it. You’re right, because of this it is even more important that we must keep an open mind to challenge the widely accepted views around us. My Child Psychology class was really great in that our professor was always asking us which theory we agreed with or disagreed with most. It challenged me to really think about what I believe and I really benefited from taking that extra step to ask myself after lectures, do I think this is true? I greatly appreciate my professor for this.
Natalie Fleet
5:28 pm, 02.02.11
I believe this relationship is very similar to the relationship a lot of teachers strive for. I know growing up, my parents strove to teach me everything they believed was right, but they also wanted me to create my own beliefs and build my own faith. I believe this is also a relationship that ACU strives for. We want to build a base of knowledge for students, but they also want us to think for our selves and develop beliefs.
Derek Mar
11:48 pm, 02.02.11
I think this is what teachers strive for because it is the way that knowledge advances. The teacher gives the facts plus possibly their way of looking at it to give a guide of what to do with the information. The rest is up to the student to apply critical thinking to advance the ideas.
LeeAnn Green
5:39 pm, 02.02.11
I really like what you said about how in Plato and Aristotle’s time they would learn their teachers views but then make it their own. It is often disappointing to me how people will listen to their teachers and agree with everything they say blindly. Most students do not take the time to research and study for themselves and then form their own views and opinions. That is something I think we should work on.
Brittany Rexroat
6:03 pm, 02.02.11
I totally agree with the fact that a lot of time we just look up to a higher authority for the answers or opinions. People should be more open to looking at others opinions who are not considered an authority figure because they are not the only ones who could have good ideas or opinions. As well as we should look to ourselves a lot of time we over look the fact that we may have a great idea and are to afraid to admit it.
Lacy Hanson
6:05 pm, 02.02.11
I totally agree with how you’ve said that Aristotle took what he learned from Plato as a student and developed his own thoughts and beliefs based on that. As students, we sometimes forget that we’re allowed to think and have our own beliefs in a classroom too since we often feel like the teacher is “king/queen” of the classroom and we’re just students. I think that we should start to speak up in classes and have discussions with professors, like Aristotle probably did with Plato, rather than be passive listeners.
Jacob Luedecke
7:58 pm, 02.02.11
I completely agree with you. Plato once said “The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men.” This could not be more true in our day and age. In a time where conformity to societal standards buys you a get out of jail free card and a key to the city outspoken beliefs are not exactly readily accepted. Even at a University that prides itself in speaking up for what you believe there are some severe limitations and glass ceilings that prevent free thought.
Terry Osborne
9:05 pm, 02.02.11
I could’nt agree more! I too think it is awesome how those before us contributed so much to the field. I also see that those before us seem to just record there experiences and then it becomes a theory. I really enjoy and hope to take a little peice of each to develop my own experience as a counselor.