Forms and Causes: Philosophies of Aristotle and Plato

Aristotle and Plato are the two most influential philosophers in history. Plato is the greatest student of Socrates and then teaches Aristotle. As time passed, Aristotle became Plato's biggest student. Aristotle, Plato and Socrates together lay the foundation of Western philosophy and science we know now. Plato is still struggling at the Olympic level in addition to being a philosopher He is one of the classical Greek writers, mathematicians and the founder of the first higher education university in the west.

Like his teacher Plato, Aristotle's philosophy aims to achieve universality. Aristotle's ontology places universal (Katoul) in the world of things (Katohecaston), but for Plato the universe is an independent form of existence, the actual ones are imitated. In other words, Aristotle's epistemology is based on research on the existence or occurrence of the world, and the heightened understanding of universality. On the other hand, Plato's epistemology begins with the understanding of the universal form (or thought) from the recognition of certain imitation products. For Aristotle, "morphology" is still based on phenomena, but it is "materialized" among specific substances. In this example Aristotle uses induction and deduction, but Platon relies on interpretation of a priori principle.

Aristotle's shape is very different from Plato's shape. If Plato is seeing the shape as an independent presence, Aristotle is also so. Essentially, for Aristotle, the form is the organizational principle of matter. There is no form of things at all. In this way, the word "form" coincides with modern usage like "form", but the soul is not merely a form. Aristotle distinguishes different kinds of souls. Plants only have a soul of nutrition (ie they are organized in nutrition, growth and decline). Animals have sensuous / perceptive souls (ie, animals are organized to have nutritional souls, but they also have the ability to perceive and perceive things). People have a reasonable soul (ie they are organized to have all of the above and there are reasons)