Question

to plato, knowledge and virtue were inseparable. to aristotle, they were unconnected. aristotle was not on a search for absolute truth. he was not even certain it existed. truth, beauty, and goodness were to be observed and quantified from human behavior and the senses, but they were not the legal tender of the land. goodness in particular was not absolute and in aristotles opinion it was much abused. goodness was an average between two absolutes. aristotle said that mankind should strike a balance between passion and temperance, between extremes of all sorts. he said that good people should seek the \golden mean,\ defined as a course of life that was never extreme. finally, while plato argued that reality lay in knowledge of the gods, aristotle argued that reality lay in empirical, measurable knowledge. to aristotle, reality was tied to purpose and to action. for these reasons, aristotle became known as the father of modern science. aristotles most enduring impact occurred in the area of metaphysics - philosophical speculation about the nature, substance, and structure of reality. it is not physics - concerned with the visible or natural world. metaphysics is concerned with explaining the non - physical. aristotle then advanced the discussion about god, the human soul, and the nature of space and time. what makes this particularly interesting is aristotles penchant for delving into the metaphysical by talking about the gods in human terms. aristotle said, \all men by nature desire to know\ and it is by the senses that the gods were known - or not. faith had nothing to do with it. in other words, aristotle, for the first time, discussed the gods as if they were quantified entities. he spoke about them as if they were not present. the hebrews had done this earlier (genesis 3) but aristotle was probably not aware of moses text. while some christian thinkers such as augustine and aquinas employed aristotelian logic in their discussions about god, they never speculated about his existence as aristotle did. they only used aristotles techniques to understand more about him.

assignments

• warm - up: contrast the two basic worldviews that aristotle and plato champion.
• students should complete concept builder 2 - b.
• students should review reading(s) from next chapter.
• students should outline essays due at the end of the week.
• per teacher instructions, students may answer orally, in a group setting, some of the essays that are not assigned as the formal essay.

Explanation:

Plato saw knowledge and virtue as inseparable and believed reality was in knowledge of the gods. Aristotle thought they were unconnected, and reality lay in empirical, measurable knowledge. He also made significant contributions to metaphysics.

Answer:

Aristotle championed an empirical - based worldview where reality was tied to purpose and action, and knowledge and virtue were unconnected. Plato believed knowledge and virtue were inseparable and reality was in knowledge of the gods.