Was Aristotle an anti-Platonist?

Question:Not "anti" as in, "I must go openly oppose him, and show his ideas as wrong."

But he opposed his teacher 180 degrees in almost everything.
"The conflict of Aristotle versus Plato is the conflict of reason versus mysticism. It was Plato who formulated most of philosophy's basic questions—and doubts. It was Aristotle who laid the foundation for most of the answers. Thereafter, the record of their duel is the record of man's long struggle to deny and surrender or to uphold and assert the validity of his particular mode of consciousness."

"Aristotle is the champion of this world, the champion of nature, as against the supernaturalism of Plato. Denying Plato's World of Forms, Aristotle maintains that there is only one reality: the world of particulars in which we live, the world men perceive by means of their physical senses. Universals, he holds, are merely aspects of existing entities, isolated in thought by a process of selective attention; they have no existence apart from particulars. Reality is comprised, not of Platonic abstractions, but of concrete, individual entities, each with a definite nature, each obeying the laws inherent in its nature. Aristotle's universe is the universe of science. The physical world, in his view, is not a shadowy projection controlled by a divine dimension, but an autonomous, self-sufficient realm. It is an orderly, intelligible, natural realm, open to the mind of man."

"Aristotle may be regarded as the cultural barometer of Western history. Whenever his influence dominated the scene, it paved the way for one of history's brilliant eras; whenever it fell, so did mankind. The Aristotelian revival of the thirteenth century brought men to the Renaissance. The intellectual counter-revolution turned them back toward the cave of his antipode: Plato."

Plato led us all to believe we were in that cave he envisioned. If we were to learn anything from it, it was the 'condition' of the human species.
Aristotle, by pointing to the existant earth while Plato pointed to the non-existant 'heavens,' was trying to show that all answers are found in what we can comprehend, not what in what is incomprehensible.

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: Not "anti" as in, "I must go openly oppose him, and show his ideas as wrong."

But he opposed his teacher 180 degrees in almost everything.
"The conflict of Aristotle versus Plato is the conflict of reason versus mysticism. It was Plato who formulated most of philosophy's basic questions—and doubts. It was Aristotle who laid the foundation for most of the answers. Thereafter, the record of their duel is the record of man's long struggle to deny and surrender or to uphold and assert the validity of his particular mode of consciousness."

"Aristotle is the champion of this world, the champion of nature, as against the supernaturalism of Plato. Denying Plato's World of Forms, Aristotle maintains that there is only one reality: the world of particulars in which we live, the world men perceive by means of their physical senses. Universals, he holds, are merely aspects of existing entities, isolated in thought by a process of selective attention; they have no existence apart from particulars. Reality is comprised, not of Platonic abstractions, but of concrete, individual entities, each with a definite nature, each obeying the laws inherent in its nature. Aristotle's universe is the universe of science. The physical world, in his view, is not a shadowy projection controlled by a divine dimension, but an autonomous, self-sufficient realm. It is an orderly, intelligible, natural realm, open to the mind of man."

"Aristotle may be regarded as the cultural barometer of Western history. Whenever his influence dominated the scene, it paved the way for one of history's brilliant eras; whenever it fell, so did mankind. The Aristotelian revival of the thirteenth century brought men to the Renaissance. The intellectual counter-revolution turned them back toward the cave of his antipode: Plato."

Plato led us all to believe we were in that cave he envisioned. If we were to learn anything from it, it was the 'condition' of the human species.
Aristotle, by pointing to the existant earth while Plato pointed to the non-existant 'heavens,' was trying to show that all answers are found in what we can comprehend, not what in what is incomprehensible.

Was Jung anti-Freud? Jung had his reservations about Freud's Psychoanalysis as Aristotle had his about Platon's Classicism.

I don't think so.

Not exactly. Aristotle was Plato's student, but opposed some of his ideas.

There's a famous painting of Plato and Aristotle walking and talking. Plato is pointing to the heavens; Aristotle is gesturing toward the earth.

That is the difference. Aristotle is about understanding men's lives; Plato about the Absolute, the Platonic realm.