Plato's and Aristotle's Views on Knowledge

Plato’s Theaetetus starts off with Euclid of Megara by speaking with his friend Terpsion about a dialogue he has between Socrates and Theaetetus. He says, that the dialogue was from when Theaetetus was young. Euclid of Megara’s conversation with Terpsion acts as the structure for the dialogue itself. The other participants of the dialogue are Socrates, Theodorus, and Theaetetus. The question that the participants are asking is “what is knowledge?” Theaetetus gives four definitions to the question “what is knowledge?” The first being that knowledge is arts and sciences, the second being knowledge is sense-perception, the third that knowledge is true judgment, and the fourth being knowledge is true judgment with an account. But Socrates was

Between the two schools of epistemology, rationalism and empiricism, I am inclined towards the philosophies of rationalism. I am persuaded towards philosophical approaches which are superior at attaining truth. Empiricism relies on observation using the five senses in reasoning to achieve truth. However, in Plato’s Thaetetus, Socrates gives strong arguments for the limitations of human perception. The Canadian legal system, also, recognizes flaws in human observation, which increases my skepticism of empiricism. Conversely, rationalism relies solely on the use of logic and deduction in reasoning. Both, Plato and Socrates stressed the value of rationalism through the ability to know and express combinations of elements through mathematics. Large

Socrates thinks that it requires wisdom to know the difference between the knowledge and an opinion. And what he means by that is knowledge is based on reasoned ideas beliefs, and can be proved and confirmed by rational arguments, where’s other opinion is not proved. For Socrates, the reason is the bigger way to show the truth. Socrates explained that role model is how to act well for example an equivalent way, knowledge is in an unqualified manner, according to Socrates statement beauty and wealth could benefit us sometimes if we used correctly, however, also harm to us if we did not use it the right way. This is means with knowledge we know how to act well. Socrates explained of wisdom and knowledge, as expressed by Plato in The Apology (StevenM. Cahn 29p-30), is sometimes interpreted as an example of a humility theory of wisdom Socrates and his friend Chaerephon visit the oracle at Delphi. As the story goes Chaerephon asks the oracle

Philosophers are known to question, analyze and evaluate everything but do not always end with concrete conclusions. Plato’s Euthyphro and Apology, to no surprise, highlight one of such debate: the human characteristics of wisdom. Though Plato was one of the earliest philosophers, the topic of wisdom is still debated by modern philosophers today, contemplating questions such as “What are the classifications of ‘wisdom’?” According to Plato’s two dialogues, the characteristics of wisdom have a strong correlation with the characteristics of “being a good person”. This concept highlights the values of virtue and selflessness and at the same time juxtapose views on virtue while taking into account the different forms of rationality. In this paper, I will highlight how Plato uses his two dialogues to enforce his own opinion about the relationship between being wise and being a good person, and evaluate the inconsistencies within this claim.

How do people get their knowledge? Do human’s mind generate the knowledge first or do people’s sensation act before the mind. That leads to empiricism and rationalism, which are two views that argue is the knowledge comes first from the sense and sensory experience or the mind. First of all, people might confuse about what are in front of them and try to figure out what are those. Then, the question of does sensation comes first, or the mind comes first appears. This is a scenario that people might not like, but it is what it is because it might get people confused about their knowledge. In the Cave Allegory, Plato mentions that knowledge is vague if it just through sensation, so he uses metaphor to indicate the mind lead the thinking of human

For thousands of years the most prominent theory of knowledge was Plato’s Justified True Belief theory. He was convinced that in order to know something the following criterion must be met:

The most important thing to understand regarding the philosopher's tenet of being as being is that it is essentially at the core of his notion of metaphysics, and plays a significant role in development of epistemology. What Aristotle is actually referring to in the quotation "men by nature have a desire to know" is man's basic nature which is of material substance. Men therefore, have a number of different senses (most of which are physical, some of which are not) that they use to perceive other aspects of life and its different facets. Therefore, these senses are what men use to observe, interact with, and ultimately understand the world around them. As a material being man has been endowed with such senses; therefore, he inherently has this propensity for using those senses for perceiving and understanding the

Reason is knowledge of things like mathematics but which require that some postulates be accepted without question, and "intelligence," which is the knowledge of the highest and most abstract categories of things, an understanding of the ultimate good.(Plato)

What is knowledge? What does knowledge mean and how does a person get to know something? And taking the step further than that how does a person know that the something is true? What is the basis for knowledge? There are two main forms of knowledge; a priori and empirical. A priori is knowledge that is independent from a person 's experience and can be proven to be true by simple logic or basic definition of what is being stated. For example 2+2=4 is considered a priori type of knowledge because it can be proven true by using the mechanics of mathematics. The other type of knowledge is knowledge that can not be true without a personal experience to give justification to why it is true, this knowledge is called empirical knowledge. Empirical knowledge is much harder to prove to be true just by the nature of where the justification comes from. An example of this is that "the writing is in blue ink" the statement can only be true if I had seen for myself that the writing was done in blue ink because by definition writing does not have to be in blue ink. To solve this problem, Plato would say that knowledge is a justified true belief and gives us specific steps to work through this problem. This means the person making the claim must be able to justify it in someway. The claim in itself must be true. And the person must believe

The Greeks and their emphasis on rational thinking is a turning point in human civilization. Greek philosophers were men that devoted their lives to the study of nature, the reason things are the way they are, and even questioned why we exist. The Greek philosophers are historically significant because they dared to question traditional beliefs and would intellectually challenge those with prejudice opinions. In this paper, we will be taking a closer look at three of the most influential of the philosophers: Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle.

Knowledge is defined as the facts, information, and skills acquired by a person through experience or education . It is the state of being aware of something. The soul, based on the Tripartite of the Human Person by Plato, is referred to as the beholder of reason or knowledge, and the seat of wisdom. It is the immaterial and immortal essence, which controls our body and spirit. What is the relationship between our soul and knowledge? A philosopher named Plato stated that the Soul is the beholder of perfection and knowledge. Soul came from the world of perfection. Perfection is forgotten when the Soul merges with the Body. The perfection is then recalled through education. A philosopher named Aristotle rejected this philosophy. He stated that there is no innate knowledge. Our Soul can be compared to a Tabula Rasa or a blank slate. The Tabula Rasa acts as a room for storing knowledge. The information gathered by our senses is processed by our brain, and is stored in our soul

The emphasis on learning & the use of reason are concepts that refer to knowledge. Knowledge is the skills acquired by a person through experience. The importance of knowledge is displayed through Greek art, philosophy, and the Odyssey but is also a factor in the way we see the world around us. Our perspective of events that occur can be developed through learning and the use of reason. Reason is the ability to think clearly, without reason we could get caught up in a variety of things and miss the chance to expand our knowledge. The Greeks believed in this principle and therefore it is a factor in art, literature, and philosophical ideas.

It is with these thoughts that Aristotle opens the door to wisdom in specific subjects rather than be omniscient wisdom.

The Oxford’s dictionary defines knowledge as “Facts, information and skills acquired through experience or educational or practical understanding of a subject” and Plato defined knowledge as a “justified true belief”.

In many of Plato’s dialogues, Socrates communicates that knowledge is an event of recollection, not learning, observation, or study. Socrates has also argued that knowledge comes from divine insight, and is not empirical. Plato recommends a faith in the immortality of the soul in dialogues, including the Phaedo, Republic, and Phaedrus. Several of his dialogues are concluded with long