Mohamed R. answered • 01/31/21
Bachelor degree in English with experience in philosophy tutoring.
How to obtain Truth or knowledge relates to the Theory of Knowledge. Plato believes that the Truth is in the world of Forms. That means Truth cannot be attained in the world of matter due to the fact that it is temporary, changing and deceiving. Aristotle disagrees with Plato. He states that the Truth is eminent in every object in this world. For Aristotle one can actualize their potential in this world to attain the Truth.
The opposition between Plato and Aristotle led to the emergence of two opposing views on how a person attains knowledge (Truth). One of them is the empiricists, who state that knowledge can only be achieved through experience. Hume, for instance, believes that we get to know things through sense perception (sensation). Another example within that trend is Lock, who considers the mind as simply a tabula rasa (blank slate) upon which experience leaves its imprints.
The second view is the rationalists. An example is Descartes, who considers knowledge to be innate, independently of the outside world. That is why only reason would allow us to know the objects in this world.
Kant brings the two opposing views together by adding "sensibility". Kant considers reason alone cannot attain the Truth. He clearly proves how reason alone is limited in his book "The Critique of Pure Reason."
