Paths to Virtue: Newman, Plato, Aristotle, and Aquinas Dialogue on the Ethical Life

My assignment is for my class Philosophy and the Ethical Life. It’s a term paper. Here are the instructions: Write a 1700-word dialogue between plato, aristotle, and newman. (you can include thomas aquinas if you like; he’s almost entirely on newman’s side.) the topic of dialogue is the relationship between philosphy and the ethical life. start with newman. he calls liberal education “philosphy”. what did he mean by that? why does he draw a sharp distinction between philosphy and the ethical life? plato and aristotle hold different opinions about these questions. what are they? how do they see the relationship between liberal education and (what I have called) moral training? how would these figures present their opinions to their interlocutors? how would they criticize the opinions of the others? how would they defend their own views against criticism? Write a dialogue that allows each interlocutor to make the strongest possible case for his opinions. its okay if you have one character “win” the discussion, but make sure that the doctrines of each character recieve a fair hearing. if you think all the interlocutors are wrong, write the dialogue so that they all stand refuted at the end. you dont need to present your own positive views unless you prefer to-perhaps through a fourth character? it is fine if the dialogue fails to reach a final conclusion. almost no platonic dialogues have a satisfactory end, yet they are great examples of philosphy done well. (Do not directly quote the texts. you can indirectly refer to the texts and give a parenthetical reference to the relevant marginal line numbers in the text.