Difference Between Plato And Hesiod

Hesiod and Plato both attempt to provide readers with an insight to the world through answering life’s fundamental questions. In attempt to do so, in Works and Days, by Hesiod, and in The Allegory of the Cave, by Plato, the authors explore the origin of human misery. Although both authors explore the same fundamental life question: “What is the origin of human misery,” they use two different approaches to do so. The difference between Hesiod’s and Plato’s approach to explaining the origin of human misery can be found through exploring the ideas of mythology and philosophy. Mythology and philosophy both explore the fundamental questions of life, but take a very different approach in order to convey an idea. Mythology can explain fundamental

Through pinpointing the origin of human misery onto relativism, Plato explores the idea that democracy fails due to the lack of truth present throughout politics. As Plato discusses the notion of the State, he claims a failed State is one “in which men fight with one another about shadows only and are distracted in the struggle for their power” (Plato 50). Throughout their struggle for power, politicians behind democracy attempt to persuade others on the force of an idea in order to gain support, rather than informing people of reality. Due to the notion of persuasion in democracy, human knowledge of political aspects is often grounded in false realities. Knowledge grounded in fallacies causes humans to make decisions based off of persuasion rather than the truth. When a human makes a decision based in relativism rather than in knowledge of the truth, their decision often fails pushing them into a further state of misery. Unlike Hesiod and his use of mythology, Plato uses intellect in order to offer a solution to living in a false reality. For instance, when speaking of the uneducated, or rather those who live in ignorance, Plato states, “They will not act at all except upon compulsion” (Plato 49). Plato implies that in order to pull out of a state of ignorance, humans must become educated to gain perspective on the world. Through gained perspective, humans can make

As seen in Hesiod’s Works and Days, he uses mythology in order to explain a fundamental life question: the origin of human misery. In using mythology, Hesiod taps into human emotion into order to explain how human misery came to existence. Hesiod explores the notion of nostalgia through referencing the god-like first generation and implies returning to the “good old days” would erase human misery, but offers no rational solution to the problem. On the other hand, Plato uses philosophy in order to explain why human misery exist. Through using philosophy, Plato appeals to intellect. Plato parallels objects in the story of they cave to real world instances in order to rationally explain the origin of human misery. Through rational explanations, Plato points out that democracy is based off of persuasion rather than truthful knowledge. Due the bases of democracy in relativism, humans fail to make a decision based off of the truth, and rather make decisions based off of persuasion. Although these problems exist, through using philosophy, Plato offers intellectual insight on how to gain truth. Because of the distinction between mythology and philosophy, mankind can use both when exploring fundamental life questions. An essential to fully understanding fundamental life questions is to know both how and why a situation occurs, which can be discovered through combining mythology and