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PLS1501 Assessment 2

The document discusses the contrasting theories of knowledge by Plato and Aristotle, highlighting Plato's idealism and theory of forms versus Aristotle's empiricism. Plato posits that knowledge is innate and derived from a higher realm of unchanging forms, while Aristotle argues that knowledge is gained through sensory experience and logical reasoning. The author critiques Plato's theory for its contradictions and emphasizes Aristotle's grounded approach to understanding knowledge through empirical observation.

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5 views2 pages

PLS1501 Assessment 2

The document discusses the contrasting theories of knowledge by Plato and Aristotle, highlighting Plato's idealism and theory of forms versus Aristotle's empiricism. Plato posits that knowledge is innate and derived from a higher realm of unchanging forms, while Aristotle argues that knowledge is gained through sensory experience and logical reasoning. The author critiques Plato's theory for its contradictions and emphasizes Aristotle's grounded approach to understanding knowledge through empirical observation.

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batisdimitri
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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PLS1501 ASSESMENT 2

DIMITRI BATIS 16170202

As humans we have an innate desire to know things and broaden our understanding of the world
around us, whether it be from studying or simply experiencing, it is human nature to want to
know and understand. There are questions that must be asked when referring to knowledge,
firstly what can we know? And secondly how do we arrive at knowledge of the world?. These
questions have been answered before by some of the greatest thinkers in history but I’ll be
focusing on Aristotle’s theory as well as his teacher Plato’s theory and why Aristotle disagrees
with his theory.

To begin I must first talk about Plato’s theory, the theory of the forms. Plato is regarded as an
idealist and this correlates well with his theory on how us as humans gain knowledge, Plato
believes that all knowledge is innate and that when we learn something new we are simply
recollecting what our mind already knows. This is possible through Plato’s theory of forms which
he claims that the material world we currently live in is not real and that there is a higher realm
or what he calls it ‘the world of the forms’. He argues that the world in which we perceive as real
is merely an imitation of the world of the forms, this is because our world is constantly changing
and how can something be true if it is constantly changing?. The world of the forms represents a
perfect and unchanging world where all things are in their true forms, whether it be a tangible
thing like an object/animal or a concept like ‘big’, all things that make up the world of the forms
are true in form. Plato believes that the soul is immortal and when we die our soul travels back
to the world of the forms to later come back to the material world. He also suggests that our
senses deceive us and that we can only acquire true knowledge through philosophical
contemplation.

Aristotle on the other hand is regarded as an empiricist and looked at knowledge more logically,
his theory emphasizes this fact. Aristotle believes that knowledge is gained through our senses
as well as our experiences. What does that mean though? Well it his theory can be broken down
into steps of sorts we must first perceive the world around us utilizing our senses to gather as
much data as we physically can, gathering as much data as we can allows us to gain experience
of what we perceive this in turn helps us identify underlying patterns and connections in what
we perceive. We then use induction to take the experience data our senses have given us and
form generalizations as well as universal concepts, we then use deduction to apply logical
reasoning to the universal concepts we have formed. Finally we extract the essential features
and properties from particular things to understand universals. For example when we see a
horse for the first time our mind takes that information and stores the form of a horse in our
head, we then use this form of the horse to identify any future horses we may see but we are
also gathering experience at the same time and through experience we are able to identify
varying aspects that differ between different types of horses and through enough experience we
would be able to tell a difference between a Mustang and an Arabian horse for example.
Its clear that both Aristotle and Plato had different ideas when it comes to knowledge and how it
is gained. Aristotle disagreed with Plato’s idealist theory of forms and favored a more empirical
theory, this is obviously seen in how both philosophers suggest we gain knowledge. Aristotle’s
view is more grounded in reality as his theory has logic applied to it which makes sense when
you look at how us as humans perceive the world around us, for instance we are able to identify
a human face since we have a form of a face in our mind from when we first saw one and
through experience we are able to identify noticeable features that differ from face to face
allowing us to tell people apart. Plato’s view has a more idealist way of thinking, if we look at the
idea of a face again with Plato’s view when we see a human face for the first time our mind is
reminded of the form of a human face form the world of forms and we then use that form in
tandem with other forms to be able to differentiate between person to person for example the
form ‘small’ can be used to describe a person’s eyes or the form ‘kind’ to describe a person's
demeanor. This begs the question if Plato’s theory is correct and the world of the forms is the
true world due to it never changing and ours is just an imitation of that, surely since it is an
imitation that means our world should be unchanging as well since the world of the forms is
unchanging? This essentially discredits Plato’s theory since it poses problems and causes
contradictions.

Both philosophers had their own ideas on how we as humans gain knowledge, both can agree
that knowledge is essential to the human condition but the way in which we gain that knowledge
varies between the two. Aristotle emphasized the importance of empirical observation,
experience and reasoning in arriving at knowledge. He believed that knowledge is not simply a
matter of abstract theory but rather it emerges from our engagement with the world around us.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrQ442KEokk&t=195s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nmt5HAlSo3k

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vd7XbhrbtY

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