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Question: Did Aristotle ever reject the main tenants of Plato!?
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Known simply as The Philosopher, in the Middle Ages, Aristotle developed one of the truly major philosophies of our civilization!. He began his career as a student in Plato's Academy, remaining there for nearly twenty years and undoubtedly accepting the main tenets of Platonism!. Toward the end of that period, however, Aristotle began to differ from his master, and upon Plato's death he left the Academy to develop his own position!. There were differences in temperament between the two philosophers which were at least partly responsible for their differences in thought!. Plato was more mystical-his philosophy has appealed to mystics through the centuries-whereas Aristotle, perhaps influenced by his birth into a medical family, was more empirical, more scientific, more concerned with the experienced world!. This concern led Aristotle finally to reject the Platonic dualism and to assert that reality is the concrete, individual thing: this man, this stone, this animal!. He uses the word "ousia," or substance, to refer to the truly real!. But because individuals alone are real, the principle explaining and accounting for them must therefore be intrinsic ones!. Aristotle's metaphysical analysis uncovers four factors "that make a thing what it is"- namely, a material, formal, efficient, and final cause!. Further, since change is a universal characteristic of things, Aristotle turns to its analysis and finds its explanation in the concepts of potency and actuality!.Www@QuestionHome@Com