with which scientific understanding is concerned).

For example, consider a particular oak tree: this is a member of a species; it has much in common with other oak trees, past, present and future. Its universal--its oakness--is a part of it; hence, one can study oak trees and learn about "oakness", and, more generally, about the intelligible order within the sensible world. Accordingly, Aristotle was more confident than Plato about coming to know the sensible world; he was