“All men, by nature, aspire to knowledge. A sign of this is the esteem of the senses. For, even apart from their usefulness, they are esteemed by themselves.” With this famous phrase, Aristotle begins his metaphysics. It means to say that every man is born/exists for the purpose of knowing. And this process starts with the senses (hearing and vision being the sharpest).
As the Stagirite (Aristotle was born in Stagira), there are five levels or degrees of knowledge and the first of them is the sensation. From the sensation, arises the memory, making better than others the beings who can remember, because, by engendering memory, they can learn. And in beings capable of remembering sensations it is possible to develop experience. Up to this level, many animals, such as bees, dogs, etc., are able to participate. However, man is able to go beyond experience and live, too, art and science.
However, still according to Aristotle, from memory experience is formed in men. This is because the many memories of the same thing lead to the experience. Likewise, the art and science of experience is born. Art (which for the Greeks is a technique, a know-how) arises from the various reflections based on experience, understood as an analysis of the similarities between things that generate a universal basic notion (experience is knowledge of singulars; and art, of universals).
For example, between the worker (bricklayer) and the foreman (engineer), the latter knows more than the former, that is, the mason performs his work perfectly, as he is used to particular cases, knowing What is its function. The engineer already knows the because is and that is why it stands out in the field of wisdom. Aristotle considers that sensations are not wisdom, but the most decisive knowledge of singular objects, but not they say the reason for nothing (they know that fire is hot, however, not because fire is hot!) and thus they cannot instruct.
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However, art is a technique aimed at the production of things and entertainment, that is, they aim at a utility. And she is knowledge of the causes that produce things. Science is a more complex case. For Aristotle, the sciences are the search for the first causes and principles of reality with an end in itself. This means that man seeks this kind of knowledge to improve his reasoning and his soul, not for any purpose or use (in view of). It is the quest for the universal. Let's see, then, how Aristotle classifies the sciences:
- Productive sciences – aimed at the manufacture of some utensil (eg, shoes, clothes, vases, etc.);
- Practical sciences – which use knowledge for an action or with a moral purpose (ethics and politics);
- Theoretical sciences – which seek to know for the sake of knowledge, regardless of an end or utility (metaphysics, physics, mathematics and psychology).
Therefore, Aristotle creates a different method for classifying beings. It is from the systematization and hierarchization that one can seek to understand from the particular to the universal, elevating wisdom and performing the specific function given by nature to man, as a rational being, which is to meet.
By João Francisco P. Cabral
Brazil School Collaborator
Graduated in Philosophy from the Federal University of Uberlândia - UFU
Master's student in Philosophy at the State University of Campinas - UNICAMP
Philosophy - Brazil School
Would you like to reference this text in a school or academic work? Look:
CABRAL, João Francisco Pereira. "Degrees of knowledge and divisions of science according to Aristotle"; Brazil School. Available in: https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/filosofia/graus-conhecimento-as-divisoes-ciencia-segundo-aristoteles.htm. Accessed on June 28, 2021.
