Philosophical issues in Aristotle's biology / edited by Allan Gotthelf and James G. Lennox.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Gotthelf, Allan, 1942-2013.

Lennox, James G.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Aristotle.

Biology--Philosophy.

Biology.

Biology--Philosophy--History.

History.

Physical Description:

xiii, 462 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 1987.

Summary:

Aristotle's biological works -- constituting over 25% of his surviving corpus and for centuries largely unstudied by philosophically oriented scholars -- have been the subject of an increasing amount of attention of late. This collection brings together some of the best work that has been done in this area, with the aim of exhibiting the contribution that close study of these treatises can make to the understanding of Aristotle's philosophy.

The book is divided into four parts, each with an introduction which places its essays in relation to each other and to the wider issues of the book as a whole. The first part is an overview of the relationship of Aristotle's biology to his philosophy; the other three each concentrate on a set of issues central to Aristotelian study -- definition and demonstration; teleology and necessity in nature; and metaph themes such as the unity of matter and form and the naturisubstance.

Over three-quarters of the essays are newly written, and much of the rest has been significantly revised. Although the book is addressed primarily to students of Aristotle's Philosophy, its ext ensive attention to the whole of his biological works should make it of interest to historians and philosophers of biology as well.

Contents:

I Biology and philosophy: an overview

1 The place of biology in Aristotle's philosophy / D. M. Balme 9

2 Aristotle's biological universe: an overview / Montgomery Furth 21

3 Empirical research in Aristotle's biology / G. E. R. Lloyd 53

II Definition and demonstration: theory and practice

4 Aristotle's use of division and differentiae / D. M. Balme 69

5 Divide and explain: the Posterior Analytics in practice / James G. Lennox 90

6 Definition and scientific method in Aristotle's Posterior Analytics and Generation of Animals / Robert Bolton 120

7 First principles in Aristotle's Parts of Animals / Allan Gotthelf 167

III Teleology and necessity in nature

8 Aristotle's conception of final causality / Allan Gotthelf 204

9 Hypothetical necessity and natural teleology / John M. Cooper 243

10 Teleology and necessity / D. M. Balme 275

IV Metaphysical themes

11 Aristotle's biology was not essentialist / D. M. Balme 291

Appendix 1 Note on the aporia in Metaphysics Z 302

Appendix 2 The snub 306

12 Logical difference and biological difference: the unity of Aristotle's thought / Pierre Pellegrin 313

13 Kinds, forms of kinds, and the more and the less in Aristotle's biology / James G. Lennox 339

14 Animals and other beings in Aristotle / L. A. Kosman 360

15 Aristotle on bodies, matter, and potentiality / Cynthia A. Freeland 392

16 Aristotle on the place of mind in nature / William Charlton 408.

Notes:

Includes indexes.

Bibliography: pages 424-430.

ISBN:

052132582X

0521310911

OCLC:

14242750