Aristotle v. Plato: How Their Ideas Shaped Rand, Kant and the World

In this video, Jon Hersey, managing editor of The Objective Standard, argues that four thinkers, Aristotle, Rand, Plato, and Kant, are the key to understanding some of history’s most brilliant eras — and its darkest — as well as the modern-day culture war that seemingly divides us so profoundly.

Whose ideas, for example, dominated during the Middle Ages, when humanity advanced very little? What about during the Renaissance, Enlightenment, and Industrial Revolution? And what might that tell us about whose philosophy is more likely to lead to human prosperity moving forward?

Hersey answers those questions and more by summarizing Plato’s and Aristotle’s worldviews and that of their most essential exponents: Kant and Rand.

Comment below if you agree or disagree with his analysis, and be sure to tell us why!

Chapters:
0:00: Plato’s and Aristotle’s Most Important Exponents
0:24: Plato’s World of Forms and the Basis for Dictatorships
1:41: Aristotle’s Obsession with the Real World
2:08: History’s Brightest and Darkest Eras
5:12: Kant’s “Moral Duty” to Accept Rulers — and Rand’s Takedown of It
7:24: Rand’s Precondition of Values
8:20: Rand on Reason
9:15: Rand’s Revival of the Enlightenment