philosophy

The philosophies of Aristotle and Descartes have many distinguished differences. Aristotle, born in 384BC, brought out the empiricist side of philosophy. Descartes, born in 1596BC, did not contribute to the empiricist side of philosophy, but instead focused on and believed more in a rationalistic style of philosophy. Though some thoughts remained similar between the two men, the differences between the two philosophies are clear.
To understand the thoughts of Aristotle and Descartes one must first understand the differences between empiricism and rationalism. An empiricist is one who believes that sense perception is the most important part of knowledge. Sense perception is where it all starts. In order to truly grasp something, one must use his/her sense perceptions to really understand it. For example, one doesn’t really know what a pumpkin looks like until he sees the pumpkin; only then can he for a mental picture in his head of what a pumpkin is. In comparison to the em...