· Aristotle ·

Aristotle describes knowledge as true, exact, and incapable of deviating from its object. He proposes two different levels of knowledge, the first one being the understanding of knowledge, which is developed through life thanks to the second level, which is sensitive knowledge (through senses and experience).

The process of acquiring knowledge starts with impressions for Aristotle. These are the intellection of senses. An example of how someone achieves an impression is by using an organ (senses) which could be the eye. To Aristotle, the eye was the power of the soul.

Aristotle’s understanding of soul refers to it in a scientific way. He proposes that the soul is what makes someone alive, and within the soul there is the mind. The mind is the power or faculty for acquiring knowledge. Inside the mind, we have the intellect, which is divided into two categories: passive and active. Passive intellect refers to the acceptance of a certain degree of knowledge, without further questioning over the process of understanding of the world. Active intellect refers to the thinking and  reasoning of information to acquire knowledge, and the further questioning of the results of this reasoning.

Epistemology was considered a discipline by Aristotle. He believed that trying to understand the world is the basic objective of the people. He classifies people into two groups, according to the type of intellect the used: the ones who stop at a certain degree of knowledge (use of passive intellect) and those who construct theories after acquiring knowledge (use of active intellect). 

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Disclaimer: this blog post is part of a school assignment, it is not intended to be a reliable source of information for research.