Aristotle is often regarded as one of the most important of the Greek philosophers. Although a student of Plato, Aristotle’s doctrines diverged from his teacher’s. Aristotle approached the study of philosophy through the method of scientific observation, while Plato approached philosophy through his theory of forms. This notion that Aristotle relied on empirical observation, while Plato used thought experiments, is not always a fair comparison. However, it does serve as a general guide for thinking about the two philosophers.
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References
- Anagnostopoulos, Georgios, editor. A Companion to Aristotle. Wiley-Blackwell, 2009.
- Aristotle. Nicomachean ethics. Translated by Terence Irwin, Hackett Pub. Co., 1999.
- Aristotle. Politics. Translated by Carnes Lord, University of Chicago Press, 2013.
- Aristotle. The Nicomachean Ethics. Translated by W.D. Ross, in The Internet Classics Archive, 2009, classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/nicomachaen.html. Accessed 14 April 2017.
- Shields, Christopher. “Aristotle.” The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2016, plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2016/entries/aristotle. Accessed 14 April 2017.