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Aristotle
“The Philosopher”
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Some Background
 b. northern Greece 384 BCE
 Studied at Plato’s Academy from
the age of 17 (for about 20 yrs.)
 Believed “All men possess by
nature the desire to know.” i.e.,
universe was there to learn from
& open to investigation
 From a long line of doctors
 A predecessor of modern
scientific investigation
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Influenced by Plato?
• Yes, at first
• Eventually developed his own
views
• Often disagreed with Plato
• May have hoped to lead
Plato’s Academy
• Tutored Alexander the Great
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Aristotle’s School
• The Lyceum, after the gardens
where Socrates went to think
• Aristotle would walk & talk with
his students
• Lectured on logic, 1st principles
in a.m.
• Spoke on rhetoric, politics,
ethics… to public in p.m.
• Fled Athens “Lest they sin
twice against philosophy”
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Theory of True Knowledge
• Agreed with Socrates &
Plato: it IS possible to
know what is real in the
universe
• Real truth is
unchanging
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Aristotle Disagreed with Plato
• On Plato’s view of forms /
ideas
• Recall: Plato believed that
perfect, eternal forms
existed for all things
• Aristotle couldn’t accept
that forms/ideas existed
separately from the things
themselves.
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Aristotle Believed in Sense Knowledge
• Senses allow us to
experience specific objects
• From specific objects 
universal concepts of
objects
• We don’t need to move
beyond the things
themselves to develop
general universal ideas
• Forms/ideas reside in
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particular
entities
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Aristotle’s View
• We develop the idea:
– Of human being
• by observing many human
beings
– Of a sunny day by
• living through many sunny days
• It is not necessary to
separate ideas from their
physical representations
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Another Disagreement
• Plato believed that sense
knowledge was inferior to
reasoned knowledge (it was
changeable)
• Aristotle encouraged the use
of senses
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Disagreement continued
• Senses are used to
build general
knowledge  universal
concepts (senses are
accurate in the image
they give us)
• We don’t have innate
ideas
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The “bottom line”
• Plato’s view 
Rationalism (mind &
reason are main source of
knowledge of the world)
• Aristotle’s view  closer
to Empiricism (Senses are
the main source of
knowledge)
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Some footnotes on Greek Philosophy
• Greek Philosophy is so influential
since:
– Greece was at the crossroads of
Asia, Africa & Europe
– Athenian society was open to new
ideas
– Democracy & public debate
flourished
• Other “thinkers” Sophists – there was
no absolute right/wrong only what
could be defended with argument
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Hypatia
The Philsopher in Alexandria
• From Alexandria, Egypt
• Studied in Athens
• The head of Alexandria’s NeoPlatonist philosophical school
• Wrote much, e.g. The
Astronomical Canon
• Invented many things: astrolabe,
water-distillation device,
mechanism to measure specific
gravity…
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Hypatia continued
• Popular with public, political
officials jealous of her power
 stoned to death at 45
• Little left of her writing today
• “Reserve your right to think,
for even to think wrongly is
better than not to think at all.”
• “To teach superstitions as
truth is a most terrible thing.”
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