Differences between Plato and Aristotle
The current understanding of knowledge and the universe by man today stems from many centuries ago when philosophers attempted to understand the seemingly chaotic world around them. The Greek philosophers Plato and Aristotle are responsible for some of these major early discoveries and are a big reason as to where we are today due to their endeavors to understand various philosophical topics. In this essay, I am going to explain Plato’s views on knowledge and science, Aristotle’s views on change and science, and ultimately how although both contributed to man’s understanding of philosophy today, Aristotle started a departure from the views of Plato and into an entirely new era.
Many philosophers before Plato had conjectured many ideas and theories about the definition of knowledge. However, many of them proved to be inadequate when scrutinized by their peers. The most notable of these pronouncements is “I know that I know nothing”, said by Socrates (Plato, Apology, 21d). Plato’s dialogues and endeavors to seek out “what is knowledge” proved to be different from his predecessors and are primary instigators and sources for the origins of the theory of knowledge.
As part of Plato’s philosophy, Plato thought of knowledge as an objective property of human beings. Plato’s view, one probably adapted from Socrates, is that when an attribute is applied to an individual, the individual possesses some sort of universal criteria and thus the attribute can be applied to the individual. Thus, Plato looks for universal criteria that are applicable to all examples of knowledge. To begin his journey to seek what is knowledge, Plato tries to give conditions for knowledge. In Thaeaetetus, Plato offers three analyses of knowledge: perception is knowledge, true belief is knowledge, true belief plus a rational explanation is knowledge (Plato - Knowledge). However, Socrates rejects all of these claims through a multitude of examples and in the end of this dialogue, the reader only has
Many philosophers before Plato had conjectured many ideas and theories about the definition of knowledge. However, many of them proved to be inadequate when scrutinized by their peers. The most notable of these pronouncements is “I know that I know nothing”, said by Socrates (Plato, Apology, 21d). Plato’s dialogues and endeavors to seek out “what is knowledge” proved to be different from his predecessors and are primary instigators and sources for the origins of the theory of knowledge.
As part of Plato’s philosophy, Plato thought of knowledge as an objective property of human beings. Plato’s view, one probably adapted from Socrates, is that when an attribute is applied to an individual, the individual possesses some sort of universal criteria and thus the attribute can be applied to the individual. Thus, Plato looks for universal criteria that are applicable to all examples of knowledge. To begin his journey to seek what is knowledge, Plato tries to give conditions for knowledge. In Thaeaetetus, Plato offers three analyses of knowledge: perception is knowledge, true belief is knowledge, true belief plus a rational explanation is knowledge (Plato - Knowledge). However, Socrates rejects all of these claims through a multitude of examples and in the end of this dialogue, the reader only has
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