Aristotle’s greatest contribution to the philosophical branch of epistemology was his argument that humans gain knowledge from experience instead of an inmate knowledge of Forms (as suggested by Plato). He came to this conclusion after he realized that his knowledge of plants and animals came through his observations instead of his intuition and proclaimed that for all humans knowledge comes through experience.
He illustrated his point by explaining how he can tell a dog by seeing a dog, not because he has some innate knowledge of its Form, but rather because he has seen several dogs beforehand and can gradually recognize a dog from its special characteristics. He expressed that similar to our understanding of physical matter as we encounter it, we also understand abstract ideologies through experiences like justice and virtue. In contrast to Plato’s argument, he asserted that knowledge is empirical and it is only after we sense it that we can process and understand it through rationality.
