In the School of Athens, Aristotle is shown gesturing with his palm down to indicate that he is teaching about objective reality, as opposed to the subjective reality of the individual.
In this painting, Aristotle gestures with his palm down while Socrates gestures with his palm up. The gesture indicates that Aristotle is teaching about objective reality as opposed to the subjective reality of Socrates. This is significant because it represents a major change in perspective from Plato’s standpoint. In Plato’s dialogues, Socrates always gestures with his hand up and he claims that he knows nothing; however, in this painting, Aristotle represents Plato’s point of view – that knowledge is found in objective reality rather than in individual opinions or experiences.
The two men are also dressed differently to reflect their different approaches to knowledge. Socrates wears a simple tunic and sandals while Aristotle wears a long robe over his tunic.
So Aristotle was a pupil of Plato, who taught that everything can be understood through reason. Aristotle disagreed with this view, arguing that we cannot understand everything through reason alone; we also need experience. He believed that there were two types of knowledge: science (knowledge based on logic) and wisdom (knowledge based on experience).
He also believed in the importance of observation and experimentation for gaining knowledge about the world around us. He wrote about his many scientific experiments in his book History of Animals (c. 350 BC).
