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Chapter 5 - Parts of Animals Book 1 on Methods of Inquiry

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 May 2021

Sophia M. Connell
Affiliation:
Birkbeck College, University of London
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Summary

Parts of Animals Book 1 is mainly concerned with a discussion of the norms (horoi) that govern natural (biological) inquiry. In the present chapter I examine one of those norms, which concerns “how one ought to carry out an investigation of animals” (PA 1.1.639b3–5). Aristotle examines two alternative methods. The first recommends investigating animals species by species (e.g. sparrow, finch, raven). The second begins by grouping species into wider kinds (e.g. bird) and studies those features that belong to them as members of those wider kinds before going on to study those variations that differentiate one form of that kind from another (e.g. variations in beak shape). While scholars have been tempted to conclude that Aristotle rejects the first method outright, I argue that he thinks both approaches are important tools in the biologist’s tool-kit (PA 1.4.644b1–6). In the final section of the chapter I show how this discussion helps bring into focus the broader controversy surrounding the relation between the scientific theory presented in the Posterior Analytics and Aristotle’s scientific practice in the biological works.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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References

Guide to Further Reading

Lennox, J. 2001b. Aristotle’s Philosophy of Biology: Studies in the Origins of Life Science (Cambridge Studies in Philosophy and Biology) (Cambridge University Press).Google Scholar
Gotthelf, A. 2012a. Teleology, First Principles, and Scientific Method in Aristotle’s Biology (Oxford University Press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Balme, D. 1972/1992. De Partibus Animalium I and De Generatione Animalium I (Oxford: Clarendon Press).Google Scholar
Lennox, J. 2001a. Aristotle on the Parts of Animals 1–4. Translated with an Introduction and Commentary (Oxford: Clarendon Press).Google Scholar
Lennox, J. 1987b. “Kinds, Forms of Kinds, and the More and the Less in Aristotle’s Biology,” in Gotthelf, A. and Lennox, J. G. (eds.), Philosophical Issues in Aristotle’s Biology (Cambridge University Press), 339359.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Balme, D. 1987b. “Aristotle’s Use of Division and Differentiae,” in Gotthelf, A. and Lennox, J. G. (eds.), Philosophical Issues in Aristotle’s Biology (Cambridge University Press), 6989.Google Scholar
Deslauriers, M. 1990. “Plato and Aristotle on Division and Definition,” Ancient Philosophy 10(2): 203219.Google Scholar
Gotthelf, A. 2012c. “Division and Explanation in Aristotle’s Parts of Animals,” in Gotthelf, A., Teleology, First Principles, and Scientific Method in Aristotle’s Biology (Oxford University Press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Henry, D. 2011. “A Sharp Eye for Kinds: Collection and Division in Plato’s Late Dialogues,” Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy Vol. 51 (Oxford University Press), 229255.Google Scholar
Lennox, J. 1987a. “Divide and Explain: The Posterior Analytics in Practice,” in Gotthelf, A. and Lennox, J. G. (eds.), Philosophical Issues in Aristotle’s Biology (Cambridge University Press), 90119.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marc Cohen, S. 1973. “Plato’s Method of Division,” in Moravcsik, J. M. E. (ed.), Patterns in Plato’s Thought (Dordrecht: Reidel), 181191.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bolton, R. 1987. “Definition and Scientific Method in Aristotle’s Posterior Analytics and Generation of Animals,” in Gotthelf, A. and Lennox, J. G. (eds.), Philosophical Issues in Aristotle’s Biology (Cambridge University Press), 120166.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Charles, D. 2000. Aristotle on Meaning and Essence (Oxford University Press).Google Scholar
Deslauriers, M. 2007. Aristotle on Definition (Leiden: Brill).Google Scholar
Lennox, J. 2011. “Aristotle on Norms of Inquiry,” HOPOS: The Journal of the International Society for the History of Philosophy of Science 1: 2346.Google Scholar
Lloyd, G. E. R. 1987. “Empirical Research in Aristotle’s Biology,” in Gotthelf, A. and Lennox, J. G. (eds.), Philosophical Issues in Aristotle’s Biology (Cambridge University Press), 5364.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lloyd, G. E. R. 1990. “Aristotle’s Zoology and His Metaphysics. The Status Quaestionis. A Critical Review of Some Recent Theories,” in Devereux, D. and Pellegrin, P. (eds.), Biologie, Logique et Métaphysique chez Aristote (Paris: Éditions du CNRS), 736.Google Scholar

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