Differences Between Aristotle & Plato

Plato approached the issue of knowledge and found that ideas, as he used the term, are not only something in human consciousness but something outside it as well. Platonic Ideas are subjective and do not depend on human thought but exist entirely in their own right. They are perfect patterns that exist in the very nature of things. Such an idea is not just a human idea but the idea of the universe itself, so that the universe can express itself externally in concrete form or internally as a concept in the human mind at one and the same time. The Idea is the foundation of reality itself.

Plato is an idealist in his philosophy, basing his view of the world on the idea that there are forms embodying this world in a state of perfection and that what we perceive in this world are only shadows of the ideal. Central to Plato's thought is the power of reason to reveal the intelligibility and order governing the changing world of appearance, with the purpose of cre

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from something, with a difference of ending," as when "the grammarian gets his name from grammar, the brave get theirs from bravery" (5). Aristotle suggests that we need to understand how we are using the predicate in our discussion, and we have to be clear about this in every case. Aristotle proposed that we develop descriptions of individual things that attribute to each thing certain predicates (or categories) of ten different sorts. Substance is the most crucial of the categories because it describes the thing in terms of what it most truly is. For Aristotle, primary substance is just the individual thing itself, and this cannot be predicated of anything else. There are also secondary substances, however, and these are predicable because they include the species and genera to which the individual thing belongs. When attribution of substance in this secondary sense is made, then, it establishes the essence of each particular thing. The other nine categories are quantity, quality, relative, where, when, being in a position, having, acting on, and being affected by. These categories describe the features by which an individual substance is distinguished from others of the same kind. Substance therefore can be different
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