Aristotle Vs Plato Research Paper

Epistemologies are the study of the nature, source, and limits of knowledge. Plato and Aristotle are very influential thinkers; they have both contributed enormously to human knowledge. However, there is a great contrast between their theories and very little comparison. Plato was a rationalist; he believed you can only obtain knowledge through reasoning and understanding. Aristotle believed that you have to experience or see something to know it’s true. For this essay, I will clarify their epistemologies as well as attaching my belief to one of them. Plato illustrated a big distinction between knowledge (something that is certain) and opinion (something uncertain). The type of things Plato refers to as Forms contain logical relations, virtues, …show more content…
A group of prisoners are sitting in a cave, facing the back wall. They can look at the entrance of the cave behind them. They have been there since childhood and are unable to move because their legs and necks are chained. Behind them is a blaze of fire and the exit to the outside world. Sometimes animals, humans, and other objects pass by the cave which casts a shadow on the wall inside the cave. The prisoners look at the shadows and mistakenly view the shadows as …show more content…
Like Plato (and Aristotle), I have always believed that knowledge is limitless. When we are young, we tend to be ignorant of a lot of things. As we continue to grow, our minds continue to expand which makes us more aware of the world. Without knowledge, the human race wouldn’t have survived this long. We would not be economically advanced as we are today. I also believe that knowledge and opinion are very distinct; a lot of people, however, tend to mix these two. Just like Plato, I think that knowledge is only knowledge if you believe it, if it’s true, and if you have a good reasoning to believe something. An opinion is something that is not completely certain; something that has a possibility of being