Aristotle was the student of Plato, who was the student of Socrates

I’m a very big fan of Socrates, essentially the ‘Godfather’ of philosophy. He was the equivalent of Sigmund Freud with psychology. Socrates meant the world to his followers but he never published anything or wrote down any of his works. This is where Aristotle comes into play because he was one of Plato’s best students. Plato was one of Socrates’ students. Aristotle learned a great deal from Plato and subsequently Socrates and came up with his own philosophy.

Three quotes really come to my mind when thinking about Aristotle and Socrates and what we can learn from them about leadership. The first being, “a friend to all is a friend to none” and the second, from his metaphysics, is ,”being qua being”. The first quote is not all that hard to decipher but the second one is deeper. “Being qua being.” When you break it down it means essentially, ‘what is the essence of oneself?’ What is your makeup? What has made you the way you are today? The last quote is from Socrates in the Crito, (which Plato wrote) where he says before he drinks the sap from the hemlock, “It is not living that is important, but living rightly.” Continue reading →