When Aristotle was seventeen years old, he was brought to the Academy, which was founded by Plato, to study among the great philosophical minds of his era. Plato, who himself was a pupil of the legendary Socrates, was around 61 years old at the time, and quickly realized that Aristotle was his star pupil. Known as "the mind" of the Academy, Aristotle was deeply influenced by Plato's persona and ethics, but never did he let his admiration get in the way of his personal stands on politics and ethics, and vise versa. Just as Plato was studied under the wing of Socrates and later established his own philosophy, Aristotle followed suit. The two differed on political and ethical views, although both had similar basis for their opinions, since one followed the other's teachings. Regardless of opinions, both men were seeking the answers to two different questions, which are interrelated (along with everything else in this world, apparently); what is real, and what is the good life. Let's look at each philosopher's stands on politics and ethics.
Plato was a believer of Forms, or eternal ideas that make up things in our world. These Forms are considered the molds to the things that make up our world, but the thing that makes forms different from what we perceive in our world is their perfection. Forms are perfect, whereas what the average person interacts with is not. What we interpret with our senses is a defective attempt to copy a form, which was created by the Demiurge, or the Divine Craftsman. The Demiurge attempts to recreate the Source of the World, which is considered to be the supreme reality. The Source, also known as the Godhead, is impersonal, which explains why the Demiurge is the creator of the world. .
There were four levels of efficiency in terms of dealing with Forms, starting with the lowest to highest; changing, believing, thinking, and intelligence. Each step is a progression of a person's ability to filter out the apparent "real" from the actual real.