{{Short description|Aristotle's theories of biology}}
{{good article}}
{{Use British English|date=November 2016}}
[[File:Octopus macropus.jpg|thumb|Among Aristotle's many [[observation]]s of [[marine biology]] was that the [[Octopus macropus|octopus]] can [[Deimatic behaviour|change colour when disturbed]].]]
'''Aristotle's biology''' is the theory of [[biology]], grounded in systematic observation and collection of data, mainly [[zoology|zoological]], embodied in [[Aristotle]]'s books on the [[science]]. Many of his observations were made during his stay on the island of [[Lesbos]], including especially his descriptions of the [[marine biology]] of the Pyrrha lagoon, now the [[Kalloni#Bay and lagoon|Gulf of Kalloni]]. His theory is based on [[Hylomorphism|his concept of form]], which derives from but is markedly unlike [[Plato]]'s [[theory of Forms]].
The theory describes five major biological processes, namely [[metabolism]], [[temperature regulation]], information processing, [[embryogenesis]], and [[inheritance (biology)|inheritance]]. Each was defined in detail, in some cases enough allowing modern biologists to construct mathematical models of the [[mechanism (biology)|mechanisms]] described. Aristotle's method, too, resembled the style of science used by modern biologists when exploring a new area, with systematic data collection, discovery of patterns, and inference of possible causal explanations from these. He did not perform experiments in the modern sense, but made observations of living animals and carried out dissections. He names some 500 species of bird, mammal, and fish; and he distinguishes dozens of insects and other invertebrates. He describes the internal anatomy of over a hundred animals, and dissected around 35 of these.
Aristotle's writings on biology, the first in the [[history of science]], are scattered across several books, forming about a quarter of his [[Works of Aristotle#Aristotle's works by Bekker numbers|writings that have survived]]. The main biology texts were the ''[[History of Animals]]'', ''[[Generation of Animals]]'', ''[[Movement of Animals]]'', ''[[Progression of Animals]]'', ''[[Parts of Animals]]'', and ''[[On the Soul]]'', as well as the lost drawings of ''The Anatomies'' which accompanied the ''History''.
Apart from his pupil, [[Theophrastus]], who wrote a matching ''[[Historia Plantarum (Theophrastus book)|Enquiry into Plants]]'', no research of comparable scope was carried out in [[ancient Greece]], though [[Hellenistic]] medicine in Egypt continued Aristotle's inquiry into the mechanisms of the human body. Aristotle's biology was influential in the [[medieval]] Islamic world. Translation of Arabic versions and commentaries into Latin brought knowledge of Aristotle back into Western Europe, but the only biological work widely taught in medieval universities was ''On the Soul''. The association of his work with medieval [[scholasticism]], as well as errors in his theories, caused [[Early Modern]] scientists such as [[Galileo]] and [[William Harvey]] to reject Aristotle. Criticism of his errors and secondhand reports continued for centuries. He has found better acceptance among [[zoology|zoologists]], and some of his long-derided observations in [[marine biology]] have been found in modern times to be true.
==Context==
[[File:Plato's Academy mosaic from Pompeii.jpg|thumb|upright=0.9|Aristotle spent some 20 years at [[Plato's academy]] in [[Classical Athens|Athens]].]]
===Aristotle's background===
[[Aristotle]] (384–322 BC) studied at [[Plato's Academy]] in [[Classical Athens|Athens]], remaining there for about 20 years. Like [[Plato]], he sought [[Universal (metaphysics)|universals]] in his [[philosophy]], but unlike Plato he backed up his views with detailed and systematic observation, notably of the [[natural history]] of the island of [[Lesbos]], where he spent about two years, and the [[marine biology|marine life]] in the seas around it, especially of the Pyrrha lagoon in the island's centre.{{sfn|Leroi|2014|page=14}} This study makes him the earliest scientist whose written work survives. No similarly detailed work on [[zoology]] was attempted until the sixteenth century; accordingly Aristotle remained highly influential for some two thousand years. He returned to Athens and founded his own school, the [[Lyceum (classical)|Lycaeum]], where he taught for the last dozen years of his life. His writings on zoology form about a quarter of his surviving work.[{{cite web |last1=Lennox |first1=James |title=Aristotle's Biology |url=http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/aristotle-biology/ |website=Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy |publisher=Stanford University |access-date=28 November 2014 |date=27 July 2011}}] Aristotle's pupil [[Theophrastus]] later wrote a similar book on [[botany]], [[Historia Plantarum (Theophrastus book)|''Enquiry into Plants'']].[{{cite book | title=Ancient Natural History: Histories of Nature | url=https://archive.org/details/ancientnaturalhi00fren | url-access=limited | publisher=Routledge | author=French, Roger | year=1994 | pages=[https://archive.org/details/ancientnaturalhi00fren/page/n110 92]–99 | isbn=0-415-11545-0}}]
===Aristotelian forms===
{{main|Hylomorphism}}
[[File:Máscara (24328025622).jpg|thumb|upright=0.6|Aristotle argued by analogy with a [[woodcarving]] that a thing takes its form both from its design and from the material used.]]
Aristotle's biology is constructed on the basis of [[Hylomorphism|his theory of form]], which is derived from Plato's [[theory of Forms]], but significantly different from it. Plato's Forms were eternal and fixed, being "blueprints in the mind of God".{{sfn|Leroi|2014|pages=88–90}} Real things in the world could, in Plato's view, at best be approximations to these perfect Forms. Aristotle heard Plato's view and developed it into a set of three biological concepts. He uses the same Greek word, {{lang|grc|εἶδος}} (''eidos''), to mean first of all the set of visible features that uniquely characterised a kind of animal. Aristotle used the word γένος (génos) to mean a kind.{{efn|The English and [[taxonomy (biology)|taxonomic]] Latin [[genus]] derive from this, and have related meanings.}} For example, the kind of animal called a [[bird]] has feathers, a beak, wings, a hard-shelled egg, and warm blood.{{sfn|Leroi|2014|pages=88–90}}
Aristotle further noted that there are many bird forms within the bird kind – [[crane (bird)|crane]]s, [[eagle]]s, [[crow]]s, [[bustard]]s, [[Old World sparrow|sparrows]], and so on, just as there are many forms of [[fish]]es within the fish kind. He sometimes called these ''atoma eidē'', indivisible forms.{{efn|In modern terms, it has been argued that these roughly correspond to [[species]], and some texts use that translation. Aristotle did not formulate a definition resembling that of a modern species, however, and some of his forms are other taxa such as genera or families.}} [[Human]] is one of these indivisible forms: Socrates and the rest of us are all different individually, but we all have human form.{{sfn|Leroi|2014|pages=88–90}} More recent studies have shown that Aristotle used the terms γένος (génos) and {{lang|grc|εἶδος}} (''eidos'') in a relative way. A taxon that is considered an eidos in one context can be considered a ''génos'' (which includes various ''eide'') in another.[{{cite book |last1=Pellegrin |first1=Pierre |title=Aristotle's classification of animals: biology and the conceptual unity of the Aristotelian corpus |date=1986 |publisher=Univ. of California Pr |location=Berkeley, Calif. |isbn=0520055020 |pages=xiv + 235 |edition=Rev.}}]
Finally, Aristotle observed that the child does not take just any form, but is given it by the parents' seeds, which combine. These seeds thus contain form, or in modern terms information.{{efn|From Latin ''[[wikt:informo|informo]]'', I form, give shape to.}} Aristotle makes clear that he sometimes intends this third sense by giving the analogy of a [[woodcarving]]. It takes its form from wood (its material cause); the tools and carving technique used to make it (its efficient cause); and the design laid out for it (its ''eidos'' or embedded information). Aristotle further emphasises the informational nature of form by arguing that a body is compounded of elements like earth and fire, just as a word is compounded of letters in a specific order.{{efn|In modern terms, this implies a [[formal language|symbolic system]]. [[Armand Marie Leroi|Armand Leroi]] notes that biologists will at once think in this context of the [[nucleotide]] "letters" of [[DNA]] which give form to organisms.{{sfn|Leroi|2014|pages=88–90}}}}{{sfn|Leroi|2014|pages=88–90}}
==System==
===Soul as system===
{{main|Soul#Aristotle|On the Soul}}
[[File:Aristotelian Soul.png|thumb|upright=1.5|Aristotle described the [[Soul#Aristotle|structure of the souls]] of plants, animals, and humans, stating that humans are unique in having all three types of soul.]]
As analysed by the [[evolutionary biologist]] [[Armand Marie Leroi|Armand Leroi]], Aristotle's biology included five major interlocking [[biological process|processes]]:{{sfn|Leroi|2014|pages=370–373}}
# a [[metabolism|metabolic]] process, whereby animals take in matter, change its qualities, and distribute these to use to grow, live, and reproduce
# a cycle of [[temperature regulation]], whereby animals [[homeostasis|maintain a steady state]], but which progressively [[ageing|fails in old age]]
# an information processing model whereby animals receive [[sensory system|sensory]] information, alter it in the [[sensorium|seat of sensation]],{{efn|Like the ancient Egyptians, Aristotle believed that the [[sensorium|seat of the rational and sensitive souls]] was the heart, not the brain{{sfn|Mason|1962|page=45}}}} and use it [[motor system|to drive movements]] of the limbs. He thus separated sensation from thought, unlike all previous philosophers except [[Alcmaeon of Croton|Alcmaeon]].{{sfn|Guthrie|1981|page=348}}
# the process of [[inheritance (biology)|inheritance]].
# the processes of [[embryonic development]] and of [[spontaneous generation]]
The five processes formed [[Soul#Aristotle|what Aristotle called the soul]]: it was not something extra, but the system consisting exactly of these mechanisms. The Aristotelian soul died with the animal and was thus purely biological. Different types of organism possessed different types of soul. Plants had a vegetative soul, responsible for reproduction and growth. Animals had both a vegetative and a sensitive soul, responsible for mobility and sensation. Humans, uniquely, had a vegetative, a sensitive, and a rational soul, capable of thought and reflection.{{sfn|Leroi|2014|pages=370–373}}[Aristotle, ''[[De Anima]]'' II 3]{{sfn|Taylor|1922|page=46}}{{Clear}}
===Processes===
====Metabolism====
[[File:Aristotle's metabolism.png|thumb|300px|'''Metabolism''': Leroi's [[open system (systems theory)|open system]] model. Food is converted to the body's uniform parts and excreted residues.{{sfn|Leroi|2014|pages=400–401}}]]
Aristotle's account of metabolism sought to explain how food was processed by the body to provide both heat and the materials for the body's construction and maintenance. The metabolic system for live-bearing tetrapods{{efn|Corresponding to [[mammals]].}} described in the ''Parts of Animals'' can be modelled as an [[open system (systems theory)|open system]], a branching tree of flows of material through the body.{{sfn|Leroi|2014|pages=400–401}}
The system worked as follows. The incoming material, food, enters the body and is concocted into blood; waste is excreted as urine, bile, and faeces, and the [[fire (element)|element fire]] is released as heat. Blood is made into flesh, the rest forming other earthy tissues such as bones, teeth, cartilages and sinews. Leftover blood is made into [[fat]], whether soft [[suet]] or hard lard. Some fat from all around the body is made into [[semen]].{{sfn|Leroi|2014|pages=400–401}}{{sfn|Leroi|2010|pages=261–284}}
All the tissues are in Aristotle's view completely uniform parts with no internal structure of any kind; a cartilage for example was the same all the way through, not [[Atomism|subdivided into atoms]] as [[Democritus]] (c. 460–c. 370 BC) had argued.{{sfn|Leroi|2014|pages=79–80, 143–145}} The uniform parts can be arranged on a scale of Aristotelian qualities, from the coldest and driest, such as hair, to the hottest and wettest, such as milk.{{sfn|Leroi|2014|pages=400–401}}{{sfn|Leroi|2010|pages=261–284}}
At each stage of metabolism, residual materials are excreted as faeces, urine, and bile.{{sfn|Leroi|2014|pages=400–401}}{{sfn|Leroi|2010|pages=261–284}}
====Temperature regulation====
[[File:Aristotle's heart temperature model.png|thumb|left|300px|'''Temperature regulation''': Leroi's model based on ''Youth and Old Age, Life and Death'' 26.{{sfn|Leroi|2014|pages=400–401}}{{sfn|Leroi|2010|pages=261–284}}]]
Aristotle's account of temperature regulation sought to explain how an animal maintained a steady temperature and the continued oscillation of the thorax needed for breathing. The system of regulation of temperature and breathing described in ''Youth and Old Age, Life and Death'' 26 is sufficiently detailed to permit modelling as a [[negative feedback]] [[control system]] (one that maintains a desired property by opposing disturbances to it), with a few assumptions such as a desired temperature to compare the actual temperature against.{{sfn|Leroi|2014|pages=403–404}}
The system worked as follows. Heat is constantly lost from the body. Food products reach the heart and are processed into new blood, releasing fire during metabolism, which raises the blood temperature too high. That raises the heart temperature, causing lung volume to increase, in turn raising the airflow at the mouth. The cool air brought in through the mouth reduces the heart temperature, so the lung volume accordingly decreases, restoring the temperature to normal.{{efn|In modern terms, this is [[homeostasis]].{{sfn|Leroi|2014|pages=176–177}}}}{{sfn|Leroi|2014|pages=403–404}}
The mechanism only works if the air is cooler than the reference temperature. If the air is hotter than that, the system becomes a positive feedback cycle, the body's fire is put out, and death follows. The system as described damps out fluctuations in temperature. Aristotle however predicted that his system would cause lung oscillation (breathing), which is possible given extra assumptions such as of delays or non-linear responses.{{sfn|Leroi|2014|pages=403–404}}[{{cite book |last1=King |first1=R. A. H. |title=Aristotle on Life and Death |date=2001 |publisher=Duckworth |isbn=978-0-7156-2982-6 |pages=126–129}}]{{Clear}}
====Information processing====
[[File:Aristotle's model of information processing.png|thumb|300px|'''Information processing''': Leroi's "centralized incoming and outgoing motions model" of an animal's "sensitive soul"; the heart is the [[sensorium|seat of perception]].{{sfn|Leroi|2014|page=402}}]]
Aristotle's [[information processing (psychology)|information processing]] model has been named the "centralized incoming and outgoing motions model". It sought to explain how changes in the world led to appropriate behaviour in the animal.{{sfn|Leroi|2014|page=402}}
The system worked as follows. The animal's [[sense organ]] is altered when it detects an object. This causes a perceptual change in the animal's [[sensorium|seat of sensation]], which Aristotle believed was the heart ([[Cardiocentric hypothesis|cardiocentrism]]) rather than the [[brain]]. This in turn causes a change in the heart's heat, which causes a quantitative change sufficient to make the heart transmit a mechanical impulse to a limb, which moves, moving the animal's body. The alteration in the heat of the heart also causes a change in the consistency of the joints, which helps the limb to move.{{sfn|Leroi|2014|page=402}}
There is thus a causal chain which transmits information from a sense organ to an organ capable of making decisions, and onwards to a motor organ. In this respect, the model is analogous to a modern understanding of information processing such as in [[sensory-motor coupling]].[{{cite journal |last1=Corcilius |first1=Klaus |last2=Gregoric |first2=Pavel |title=Aristotle's Model of Animal Motion |journal=Phronesis |date=2013 |volume=58 |issue=1 |pages=52–97 |doi=10.1163/15685284-12341242}}]{{sfn|Leroi|2014|page=402}}
====Inheritance====
{{see also|Telegony (pregnancy)}}
[[File:Aristotle's model of Inheritance.png|thumb|left|300px|'''Inheritance''': model of transmission of movements from parents to child, and of [[Hylomorphism|form]] from the father. Male aspects are shown in red; female aspects in blue. The model is not fully symmetric.{{sfn|Leroi|2014|pages=215–221}}]]
Aristotle's inheritance model sought to explain how the parents' characteristics are transmitted to the child, subject to influence from the environment.{{sfn|Leroi|2014|pages=215–221}}{{efn|The relative importance of parental characteristics and environment became the subject of the modern [[nature-nurture debate]].}}
The system worked as follows. The father's semen and the mother's menses have movements that encode their parental characteristics.{{sfn|Leroi|2014|pages=215–221}}{{sfn|Taylor|1922|page=50}} The model is partly asymmetric, as only the father's movements define [[Aristotle#Aristotle's epistemology|the form or ''eidos'']] of the species, while the movements of both the father's and the mother's uniform parts define features other than the form, such as the father's eye colour or the mother's nose shape.{{sfn|Leroi|2014|pages=215–221}}
Aristotle's theory has some symmetry, as semen movements carry maleness while the menses carry femaleness. If the semen is hot enough to overpower the cold menses, the child will be a boy; but if it is too cold to do this, the child will be a girl. Inheritance is thus [[particulate inheritance|particulate]] (definitely one trait or another), as in [[Mendelian genetics]], unlike the [[Hippocratic]] model which was continuous and [[blending inheritance|blending]].{{sfn|Leroi|2014|pages=215–221}}
The child's sex can be influenced by factors that affect temperature, including the weather, the wind direction, diet, and the father's age. Features other than sex also depend on whether the semen overpowers the menses, so if a man has strong semen, he will have sons who resemble him, while if the semen is weak, he will have daughters who resemble their mother.{{efn|Thus features are, in modern terms, [[sex-linked]].{{sfn|Leroi|2014|pages=215–221}}}}{{sfn|Leroi|2014|pages=215–221}}{{Clear}}
====Embryogenesis====
[[File:Panum Bird's egg dissected to show embryo within.jpg|thumb|upright|'''Embryogenesis''': Aristotle saw the chick embryo's heart beating. 19th century drawing by [[Peter Panum]]]]
Aristotle's model of [[embryogenesis]] sought to explain how the inherited parental characteristics cause the formation and development of an embryo.{{sfn|Leroi|2014|pages=197–200}}
The system worked as follows. First, the father's semen curdles the mother's menses, which Aristotle compares with how [[rennet]] (an [[enzyme]] from a cow's stomach) curdles milk in [[cheesemaking]]. This forms the embryo; it is then developed by the action of the ''pneuma'' (literally, breath or spirit) in the semen. The ''pneuma'' first makes the heart appear; this is vital, as the heart nourishes all other organs. Aristotle observed that the heart is the first organ seen to be active (beating) in a hen's egg. The ''pneuma'' then makes the other organs develop.{{sfn|Leroi|2014|pages=197–200}}
Aristotle asserts in his ''[[Physics (Aristotle)|Physics]]'' that according to [[Empedocles]], order "spontaneously" appears in the developing embryo. In ''[[The Parts of Animals]]'', he argues that what he describes as a theory of Empedocles, that the [[vertebral column]] is divided into vertebrae because, as it happens, the embryo twists about and snaps the column into pieces, is wrong. Aristotle argues instead that the process has a predefined goal: that the "seed" that develops into the embryo began with an inbuilt "potential" to become specific body parts, such as vertebrae. Further, each sort of animal gives rise to animals of its own kind: humans only have human babies.{{sfn|Leroi|2014|pages=181–182}}
==Method==
{{further|History of scientific method}}
Aristotle has been called unscientific{{sfn|Leroi|2014|pages=369–373}} by philosophers from [[Francis Bacon]] onwards{{sfn|Leroi|2014|pages=369–373}} for at least two reasons: his scientific style,{{sfn|Leroi|2014|pages=365–368}} and his use of [[Scientific explanation|explanation]]. His explanations are in turn made cryptic by his complicated [[Four causes|system of causes]].{{sfn|Leroi|2014|pages=369–373}} However, these charges need to be considered in the light of what was known in his own time.{{sfn|Leroi|2014|pages=369–373}} His systematic gathering of data, too, is obscured by the lack of modern methods of presentation, such as tables of data: for example, the whole of ''[[History of Animals]]'' Book VI is taken up with a list of observations of the life histories of birds that "would now be summarized in a single table in ''[[Nature (journal)|Nature]]'' – and in the Online Supplementary Information at that".{{sfn|Leroi|2014|page=397}}
===Scientific style===
[[File:Two of Aristotle's Growth Laws.svg|thumb|upright=1.4|Aristotle inferred growth laws from his observations on animals, including that [[brood size]] decreases with body mass, whereas [[gestation]] period increases. He was correct in these predictions, at least for mammals: data are shown for [[mouse]] and [[elephant]].]]
Aristotle did not do [[experiment]]s in the modern sense.[Taylor, 1922. p. 42] He used the ancient Greek term ''pepeiramenoi'' to mean observations, or at most investigative procedures,{{sfn|Leroi|2014|pages=361–365}} such as (in ''Generation of Animals'') finding a fertilised hen's egg of a suitable stage and opening it so as to be able to see the embryo's heart inside.[{{cite web |last=Leroi |first=Armand Marie (Presenter) |author-link=Armand Marie Leroi |title=Aristotle's Lagoon: Embryo Inside a Chicken's Egg |url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00gqlyy |publisher=BBC |access-date=17 November 2016 |date=3 May 2011}}]
Instead, he practised a different style of science: systematically gathering data, discovering patterns common to whole groups of animals, and inferring possible causal explanations from these.{{sfn|Leroi|2014|pages=365–368}}{{sfn|Taylor|1922|page=49}} This style is common in modern biology when large amounts of data become available in a new field, such as [[genomics]]. It does not result in the same certainty as experimental science, but it sets out [[Scientific hypothesis|testable hypotheses]] and constructs a narrative explanation of what is observed. In this sense, Aristotle's biology is scientific.{{sfn|Leroi|2014|pages=365–368}}
From the data he collected and documented, Aristotle inferred quite a number of [[biological rules|rules]] relating the life-history features of the live-bearing tetrapods (terrestrial placental mammals{{efn|Excluding the [[Cetacea]] (whales and dolphins) and [[Chiroptera]] (bats).}}) that he studied. Among these correct predictions are the following. Brood size decreases with (adult) body mass, so that an [[elephant]] has fewer young (usually just one) per brood than a [[mouse]]. [[Life expectancy|Lifespan]] increases with [[gestation period]], and also with body mass, so that elephants live longer than mice, have a longer period of gestation, and are heavier. As a final example, [[fecundity]] decreases with lifespan, so long-lived kinds like elephants have fewer young in total than short-lived kinds like mice.{{sfn|Leroi|2014|page=408}}
===Mechanism and analogy===
[[File:Inselgriechischer Krug, Hetjens-Museum Düsseldorf (DerHexer).JPG|thumb|upright|Aristotle used the analogy of the movement of water through a porous pot (an [[oenochoe]] shown) to help explain biological processes as mechanisms.]]
Aristotle's use of explanation has been considered "fundamentally unscientific".{{sfn|Leroi|2014|pages=369–373}} The French playwright [[Molière]]'s 1673 play ''[[The Imaginary Invalid]]'' portrays the [[quackery|quack]] Aristotelian doctor Argan blandly explaining that opium causes sleep by virtue of its [[wikt:dormitive principle|dormitive [sleep-making] principle]], its ''virtus dormitiva''.{{efn|''First Doctor'': Most learned bachelor / Whom I esteem and honor, I would like to ask you the cause and reason why / Opium makes one sleep.
''Argan [the Aristotelian]'': ... The reason is that in opium resides / A ''dormitive virtue'', Of which it is the nature / To stupefy the senses.[}}][{{cite web |last1=Becker |first1=Barbara J. |title=Seventeenth Century Medical Practice according to Molière |url=http://faculty.humanities.uci.edu/bjbecker/PlaguesandPeople/moliere.html |publisher=University of California, Irvine |access-date=20 November 2016}}] Argan's explanation is at best empty (devoid of mechanism),{{sfn|Leroi|2014|pages=369–373}} at worst [[vitalism|vitalist]]. But the real Aristotle did provide [[Mechanism (biology)|biological mechanisms]], in the form of the five processes of metabolism, temperature regulation, information processing, embryonic development, and inheritance that he developed. Further, he provided mechanical, non-vitalist analogies for these theories, mentioning [[bellows]], toy carts, the movement of water through porous pots, and even automatic puppets.{{sfn|Leroi|2014|pages=369–373}}
===Complex causality===
{{main|Four causes|Tinbergen's four questions}}
Readers of Aristotle have found the [[four causes]] that he uses in his biological explanations opaque,{{sfn|Leroi|2014|pages=91–92}} something not helped by many centuries of confused [[exegesis]]. For a biological system, these are however straightforward enough. The material cause is simply what a system is constructed from. The goal ([[final cause]]) and formal cause are [[teleology|what something is for]], its [[function (biology)|function]]: to a modern [[teleology in biology|biologist, such teleology]] describes [[adaptation]] under the pressure of [[natural selection]]. The efficient cause is how a system develops and moves: to a modern biologist, those are explained by [[developmental biology]] and [[physiology]]. Biologists continue to offer [[Tinbergen's four questions|explanations of these same kinds]].{{sfn|Leroi|2014|pages=91–92}}{{sfn|Leroi|2014|pages=369–373}}
===Empirical research===
[[File:Metileme by Giacomo Franco.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|left|Map of [[Lesbos]] by [[Giacomo Franco]] (1597). The [[Kalloni#Bay and lagoon|lagoon near Kalloni]] (labelled "Calona") where Aristotle studied [[marine zoology]] is in the centre of the island.]]
Aristotle was the first person to study biology systematically. He spent two years observing and describing the zoology of [[Lesbos]] and the surrounding seas, including in particular the [[Pyrrha]] lagoon in the centre of Lesbos.{{sfn|Leroi|2014|page=14}}{{sfn|Thompson|1910|page=Prefatory Note}} His data are assembled from his own observations, statements given by people with specialised knowledge such as [[beekeeper]]s and [[fishermen]], and less accurate accounts provided by travellers from overseas.{{sfn|Leroi|2014|pages=196, 248}}
His observations on [[catfish]], [[Electric ray|electric fish]] (''[[Torpedo (genus)|Torpedo]]'') and [[angler fish]] are detailed, as is his writing on [[cephalopod]]s including the [[octopus]], [[cuttlefish]] and [[Argonauta argo|paper nautilus]].[{{harvnb|Singer|1931|pages= }}] He reported that fishermen had asserted that the octopus's [[hectocotylus|hectocotyl arm]] was used in sexual reproduction.{{sfn|Leroi|2014|pages=71–72}}[''History of Animals'', Book V, 541b9-541b12, 544a6-14.] He admitted its use in mating 'only for the sake of attachment', but rejected the idea that it was useful for generation, since "it is outside the passage and indeed outside the body".[''Generation of Animals'', Book I, 720b16-721a2.] In the 19th century, biologists found that the reported function was correct. He separated the aquatic mammals from fish, and knew that [[shark]]s and [[ray (fish)|ray]]s were part of the group he called ''Selachē'' (roughly, the modern zoologist's [[selachians]]{{efn|It is not safe to assume that species or groups with [[Taxonomy (biology)|Linnean names]] that resemble Aristotle's are the animals he was referring to, as zoologists including [[Carl Linnaeus|Linnaeus]] guessed rightly or wrongly what Aristotle meant in his short descriptions. Sometimes an ancient Greek name must mean exactly one species – ''hippos'' is definitely [[horse]], when it's a land animal; but sometimes a name referred to several similar species, as English names often do today: for instance, ''kephalos'' means any of 4 species of [[grey mullet]].{{sfn|Leroi|2014|pages=384–385}}}}).[
{{multiple image
|total_width=400px
|image1=FMIB 46109 Foetal Picked Dogfish, with the ovum attached (no label).jpeg
|image2=Ernst Heinrich Philipp August Haeckel.- Anthropogenie, baby, placenta (cropped).png
|footer=Aristotle recorded that the [[embryo]] of [[Mustelus canis|a dogfish]] (left) was attached by a cord to something like a mammalian [[placenta]] (right), in fact a [[yolk sac]].{{sfn|Leroi|2014|pages=72–74}}
}}
Among many other things, he gave accurate descriptions of the four-chambered stomachs of [[ruminant]]s, and of the [[ovoviviparity|ovoviviparous]] embryological development of the [[hound shark|dogfish]].{{sfn|Leroi|2014|pages=72–74}}][Emily Kearns, "Animals, knowledge about," in ''[[Oxford Classical Dictionary]]'', 3rd ed., 1996, p. 92.] His accounts of about 35 animals are sufficiently detailed to convince biologists that he [[dissection|dissected]] those species,{{sfn|Leroi|2014|page=59}} indeed [[vivisection|vivisecting]] some;{{sfn|Leroi|2014|pp=46–47}} he mentions the internal anatomy of roughly 110 animals in total.{{sfn|Leroi|2014|page=59}}
Aristotle described [[beekeeping]] with the use of smoke in ''[[History of Animals]]'' Book 9.[{{cite book |last1=Aristotle |author1-link=Aristotle |last2=Thompson |first2=D'Arcy (trans.) |author2-link=D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson |title=The Works of Aristotle |date=1910 |publisher=Clarendon Press |pages=Book 9, Section 40 |url=https://archive.org/stream/worksofaristotle04arisuoft#page/n443/mode/2up}}] The account mentions that [[Honey bee|bees]] die after stinging; that [[Worker bee|workers]] remove corpses from the hive, and guard it; castes including workers and non-working [[drone (bee)|drone]]s, but "kings" rather than [[queen bee|queens]]; predators including [[toad]]s and [[bee-eater]]s; and the [[waggle dance]], with the "irresistible suggestion" of {{lang|grc|άροσειονται}} ("{{lang|grc-Latn|aroseiontai}}", it waggles) and {{lang|grc|παρακολουθούσιν}} ("{{lang|grc-Latn|parakolouthousin}}", they watch).[{{cite journal |last1=Whitfield |first1=B. G. |title=Virgil and the Bees: A Study in Ancient Apicultural Lore |journal=[[Greece and Rome]] |date=October 1956 |volume=3 |issue=2 |pages=99–117 |jstor=641360|doi=10.1017/S0017383500015126 |s2cid=161643666 }}]
===Classification===
[[File:MacGillivray, William John Dory crop.jpg|thumb|The ''khalkeus'' ([[John Dory]]) was one of the many fish named by Aristotle.]]
Aristotle distinguished about 500 species of birds, mammals, [[Actinopterygii|actinopterygians]] and [[Shark|selachians]] in ''History of Animals'' and ''[[Parts of Animals]]''.[{{cite book |author1=Carl T. Bergstrom |author2=Lee Alan Dugatkin |title=Evolution |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SeaEZwEACAAJ |date=2012 |publisher=Norton |isbn=978-0-393-92592-0 |page=35}}][{{cite book |last=Rhodes |first=Frank Harold Trevor |title=Evolution |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EWGt0bff8agC |date=1 January 1974 |publisher=Golden Press |isbn=978-0-307-64360-5 |page=7}}][{{cite journal |last1=Voultsiadou |first1=E. |last2=Gerovasileiou |first2=V. |last3=Vandepitte |first3=L. |last4=Ganias |first4=K. |last5=Arvanitidis |first5=C. |year=2018 |orig-year=2017 |title=Aristotle's scientific contributions to the classification, nomenclature and distribution of marine organisms |volume=18 |issue=3 |pages=468–478 |journal=Mediterranean Marine Science |doi=10.12681/mms.13874 |doi-access=free }} [http://ejournals.epublishing.ekt.gr/index.php/hcmr-med-mar-sc/article/download/13874/13849 Supplementary data]] Aristotle distinguished animals with blood, ''Enhaima'' (the modern zoologist's [[vertebrates]]) and animals without blood, ''Anhaima'' ([[invertebrates]]).{{efn|Aristotle did not know that complex invertebrates do make use of [[haemoglobin]], but of a different kind from vertebrates.}}{{sfn|Taylor|1922|page=54}}{{sfn|Leroi|2014|pages=111–119}}
{| class="wikitable" style="font-size: 80%;"
|+ Aristotle's ''[[Scala naturae]]'' (highest to lowest)
! Group !! Examples
(given by Aristotle) !! Blood !! Legs !! [[Soul#Aristotle|Soul]]
(Rational,
Sensitive,
Vegetative) !! Qualities
({{Fcolor|hsl(0, 100%, 39%, 1.0)|#DDDDDD|Hot}}–{{Fcolor|hsl(180, 100%, 21%, 1.0)|#DDDDDD|Cold}},
{{Fcolor|hsl(90, 100%, 21%, 1.0)|#DDDDDD|Wet}}–{{Fcolor|hsl(270, 100%, 51%, 1.0)|#DDDDDD|Dry}})
|-
| [[Human|Man]] || [[Human|Man]] || with blood || 2 legs || R, S, V || {{Fcolor|hsl(0, 100%, 39%, 1.0)|#DDDDDD|Hot}}, {{Fcolor|hsl(90, 100%, 21%, 1.0)|#DDDDDD|Wet}}
|-
| [[Mammal|Live-bearing tetrapods]] || [[Cat]], [[hare]] || with blood || 4 legs || S, V || {{Fcolor|hsl(0, 100%, 39%, 1.0)|#DDDDDD|Hot}}, {{Fcolor|hsl(90, 100%, 21%, 1.0)|#DDDDDD|Wet}}
|-
| [[Cetaceans]] || [[Dolphin]], [[whale]] || with blood || none || S, V || {{Fcolor|hsl(0, 100%, 39%, 1.0)|#DDDDDD|Hot}}, {{Fcolor|hsl(90, 100%, 21%, 1.0)|#DDDDDD|Wet}}
|-
| [[Birds]] || [[Bee-eater]], [[nightjar]] || with blood || 2 legs || S, V || {{Fcolor|hsl(0, 100%, 39%, 1.0)|#DDDDDD|Hot}}, {{Fcolor|hsl(90, 100%, 21%, 1.0)|#DDDDDD|Wet}}, except {{Fcolor|hsl(270, 100%, 51%, 1.0)|#DDDDDD|Dry}} eggs
|-
| [[Reptile|Egg-laying tetrapods]] || [[Chameleon]], [[crocodile]] || with blood || 4 legs || S, V ||{{Fcolor|hsl(180, 100%, 21%, 1.0)|#DDDDDD|Cold}}, {{Fcolor|hsl(90, 100%, 21%, 1.0)|#DDDDDD|Wet}} except scales, eggs
|-
| [[Snakes]] || [[Natrix natrix|Water snake]], [[Ottoman viper]] || with blood || none || S, V || {{Fcolor|hsl(180, 100%, 21%, 1.0)|#DDDDDD|Cold}}, {{Fcolor|hsl(90, 100%, 21%, 1.0)|#DDDDDD|Wet}} except scales, eggs
|-
| Egg-laying [[fish]]es || [[Sea bass]], [[Sparisoma cretense|parrotfish]] || with blood || none || S, V || {{Fcolor|hsl(180, 100%, 21%, 1.0)|#DDDDDD|Cold}}, {{Fcolor|hsl(90, 100%, 21%, 1.0)|#DDDDDD|Wet}}, including eggs
|-
| (Among egg-laying fishes):
placental [[selachian]]s || [[Shark]], [[Skate (fish)|skate]] || with blood || none || S, V || {{Fcolor|hsl(180, 100%, 21%, 1.0)|#DDDDDD|Cold}}, {{Fcolor|hsl(90, 100%, 21%, 1.0)|#DDDDDD|Wet}}, but placenta like tetrapods
|-
| [[Crustaceans]] || [[Shrimp]], [[crab]] || without || Several legs || S, V || {{Fcolor|hsl(180, 100%, 21%, 1.0)|#DDDDDD|Cold}}, {{Fcolor|hsl(90, 100%, 21%, 1.0)|#DDDDDD|Wet}} except shell
|-
| [[Cephalopods]] || [[Squid]], [[octopus]] || without || tentacles || S, V || {{Fcolor|hsl(180, 100%, 21%, 1.0)|#DDDDDD|Cold}}, {{Fcolor|hsl(90, 100%, 21%, 1.0)|#DDDDDD|Wet}}
|-
| [[Mollusc|Hard-shelled animals]] || [[Cockle (bivalve)|Cockle]], [[Charonia variegata|trumpet snail]] || without || none || S, V || {{Fcolor|hsl(180, 100%, 21%, 1.0)|#DDDDDD|Cold}}, {{Fcolor|hsl(270, 100%, 51%, 1.0)|#DDDDDD|Dry}} (mineral shell)
|-
| Larva-bearing [[insect]]s || [[Ant]], [[cicada]] || without || 6 legs || S, V || {{Fcolor|hsl(180, 100%, 21%, 1.0)|#DDDDDD|Cold}}, {{Fcolor|hsl(270, 100%, 51%, 1.0)|#DDDDDD|Dry}}
|-
| [[Spontaneous generation|Spontaneously generating]] || [[Sponges]], [[worm]]s || without || none || S, V || {{Fcolor|hsl(180, 100%, 21%, 1.0)|#DDDDDD|Cold}}, {{Fcolor|hsl(90, 100%, 21%, 1.0)|#DDDDDD|Wet}} or {{Fcolor|hsl(270, 100%, 51%, 1.0)|#DDDDDD|Dry}}, from earth
|-
| [[Plants]] || [[Common fig|Fig]] || without || none || V || {{Fcolor|hsl(180, 100%, 21%, 1.0)|#DDDDDD|Cold}}, {{Fcolor|hsl(270, 100%, 51%, 1.0)|#DDDDDD|Dry}}
|-
| [[Mineral]]s || [[Iron]] || without || none || none || {{Fcolor|hsl(180, 100%, 21%, 1.0)|#DDDDDD|Cold}}, {{Fcolor|hsl(270, 100%, 51%, 1.0)|#DDDDDD|Dry}}
|}
Animals with blood included live-bearing tetrapods, ''Zōiotoka tetrapoda'' (roughly, the [[mammals]]), being warm, having four legs, and giving birth to their young.
The [[cetacea]]ns, ''Kētōdē'', also had blood and gave birth to live young, but did not have legs, and therefore formed a separate group{{efn|Aristotle did not nest his groups into a hierarchical tree.}} (''megista genē'', defined by a set of functioning "parts"{{sfn|Leroi|2014|page=279}}).{{sfn|Leroi|2014|page=116}}
The birds, ''Ornithes'' had blood and laid eggs, but had only 2 legs and were a distinct form (''eidos'') with feathers and beaks instead of teeth, so they too formed a distinct group, of over 50 kinds.
The egg-bearing tetrapods, ''Ōiotoka tetrapoda'' ([[reptile]]s and [[amphibians]]) had blood and four legs, but were cold and laid eggs, so were a distinct group.
The [[snake]]s, ''Opheis'', similarly had blood, but no legs, and laid dry eggs, so were a separate group.
The [[fishes]], ''Ikhthyes'', had blood but no legs, and laid wet eggs, forming a definite group. Among them, the selachians ''Selakhē'' (sharks and rays), had [[cartilage]]s instead of bones{{sfn|Taylor|1922|page=54}} and were viviparous (Aristotle did not know that some selachians are oviparous).[{{cite journal |last1=Laurin |first1=Michel |last2=Humar |first2=Marcel |title=Phylogenetic signal in characters from Aristotle's History of Animals |journal=Comptes Rendus Palevol |date=10 January 2022 |volume=21 |issue=1 |pages=1–16 |doi=10.5852/cr-palevol2022v21a1 |language=en|doi-access=free }}]
Animals without blood were divided into soft-shelled ''Malakostraka'' ([[crabs]], [[lobsters]], and [[shrimps]]); hard-shelled ''Ostrakoderma'' ([[gastropods]] and [[bivalves]]); soft-bodied ''Malakia'' ([[cephalopods]]); and divisible animals ''Entoma'' ([[insects]], [[spiders]], [[scorpion]]s, [[tick]]s). Other animals without blood included [[fish lice]], [[hermit crab]]s, [[red coral]], [[sea anemone]]s, [[sponges]], [[starfish]] and various worms: Aristotle did not classify these into groups, although Aristotle mentioned that the [[sea anemone]] was in its "own group".[{{cite book |author=Lovejoy, A. O. |author-link=Arthur Oncken Lovejoy |title=The Great Chain of Being: A Study of the History of an Idea |orig-year=1936 |publisher=Harvard University Press |date=2005 |isbn=0-674-36153-9}}] His system had eleven grades, arranged according to the potentiality of each being, expressed in their form at birth. The highest animals gave birth to warm and wet creatures alive, the lowest bore theirs cold, dry, and in thick eggs.[ The system was based on Aristotle's interpretation of the [[classical element|four elements]] in his ''[[On Generation and Corruption]]'': [[Fire (classical element)|Fire]] (hot and dry); [[Air (classical element)|Air]] (hot and wet); [[Water (classical element)|Water]] (cold and wet); and [[Earth (classical element)|Earth]] (cold and dry). These are arranged from the most energetic to the least, so the warm, wet young raised in a [[uterus|womb]] with a [[placenta]] were higher on the scale than the cold, dry, nearly mineral eggs of birds.][{{cite book | last=Lloyd | first=G. E. R. | author-link=G. E. R. Lloyd | date=1968 | title=Aristotle: The Growth and Structure of His thought | url=https://archive.org/details/aristotlegrowths0000lloy | url-access=registration | publisher=Cambridge University Press | place=Cambridge | pages=[https://archive.org/details/aristotlegrowths0000lloy/page/166 166–169] | isbn=0-521-09456-9}}]{{sfn|Taylor|1922|page=46}} However, Aristotle is careful never to insist that a group fits perfectly in the scale; he knows animals have many combinations of attributes, and that placements are approximate.{{sfn|Leroi|2014|page=276–278}}
==Influence==
===On Theophrastus===
{{main|Historia Plantarum (Theophrastus book)}}
Aristotle's pupil and successor at the [[Lyceum (classical)|Lyceum]], [[Theophrastus]], wrote the ''[[Historia Plantarum (Theophrastus book)|History of Plants]]'', the first classical book of [[botany]]. It has an Aristotelian structure, but rather than focus on formal causes, as Aristotle did, Theophrastus described how plants functioned.{{sfn|Mayr|1985|pages=90–91}}{{sfn|Mason|1962|page=46}} Where Aristotle expanded on grand theories, Theophrastus was quietly empirical.{{sfn|Leroi|2014|pages=32–33}} Where Aristotle insisted that species have a fixed place on the ''scala naturae'', Theophrastus suggests that one kind of plant [[evolution|can transform]] into another, as when a field sown to [[wheat]] turns to the weed [[darnel]].{{sfn|Leroi|2014|pages=296–297}}
===On Hellenistic medicine===
{{further|Medicine in ancient Greece}}
After Theophrastus, though interest in Aristotle's ideas survived, they were generally taken unquestioningly.[Annas, "Classical Greek Philosophy", 2001, p. 252. In Boardman, John; Griffin, Jasper; Murray, Oswyn (ed.) ''The Oxford History of the Classical World''. [[Oxford University Press]]. {{ISBN|0-19-872112-9}}] It is not until the age of [[Alexandria]] under the [[Ptolemaic dynasty|Ptolemies]] that advances in biology resumed. The first medical teacher at Alexandria, [[Herophilos|Herophilus of Chalcedon]], corrected Aristotle, placing intelligence in the [[brain]], and connected the [[nervous system]] to motion and sensation. Herophilus also distinguished between [[vein]]s and [[artery|arteries]], noting that the latter [[pulse]] while the former do not.{{sfn|Mason|1962|page=56}}
===On Islamic zoology===
{{further|Kitāb al-Hayawān|Science in the medieval Islamic world}}
Many [[Transmission of the Greek Classics|classical works including those of Aristotle were transmitted from Greek]] to Syriac, then to Arabic, then to Latin in the Middle Ages. Aristotle remained the principal authority in biology for the next two thousand years.[{{cite book |author=Hoffman, Eva R. |title=Translating Image and Text in the Medieval Mediterranean World between the Tenth and Thirteenth Centuries |work=Mechanisms of Exchange: Transmission in Medieval Art and Architecture of the Mediterranean, ca. 1000–1500 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XaNjNFu8fnEC&pg=PA288 |year=2013 |publisher=Brill |isbn=978-90-04-25034-5 |pages=288–}}] The ''[[Kitāb al-Hayawān]]'' (كتاب الحيوان, ''Book of Animals'') is a 9th-century [[Arabic]] translation of ''History of Animals'': 1–10, ''On the Parts of Animals'': 11–14,[Kruk, R., 1979, The Arabic Version of Aristotle's Parts of Animals: book XI–XIV of the Kitab al-Hayawan, Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, Amsterdam-Oxford 1979.] and ''Generation of Animals'': 15–19.[{{cite book |last1=Contadini |first1=Anna |title=A World of Beasts: A Thirteenth-Century Illustrated Arabic Book on Animals (the Kitab Na't al-Hayawan) in the Ibn Bakhtishu' Tradition) |date=2012 |publisher=Brill |isbn=9789004222656 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mf0xAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA39}}][Kruk, R., 2003, "La zoologie aristotélicienne. Tradition arabe", DPhA Supplement, 329–334]
[[File:AlbertusMagnus.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Albertus Magnus]] commented extensively on Aristotle's zoology, adding more of his own.{{sfn|Leroi|2014|pages=354–355}}]]
The book was mentioned by [[Al-Kindī]] (d. 850), and commented on by [[Avicenna]] (Ibn Sīnā) in his ''[[The Book of Healing|Kitāb al-Šifā]]'' (کتاب الشفاء, ''The Book of Healing''). [[Avempace]] (Ibn Bājja) and [[Averroes]] (Ibn Rushd) commented on ''On the Parts of Animals'' and ''Generation of Animals'', Averroes criticising Avempace's interpretations.{{sfn|Leroi|2014|pages=354–355}}
===On medieval science===
{{further|Medieval science}}
When the Christian king [[Alfonso VI of Castile]] [[Siege of Toledo (1085)|conquered Toledo]] from the Moors in 1085, an Arabic translation of Aristotle's works, with commentaries by [[Avicenna]] and [[Averroes]] emerged into European [[medieval]] scholarship. [[Michael Scotus|Michael Scot]] translated much of Aristotle's biology into Latin, c. 1225, along with many of Averroes's commentaries.{{efn|Scot translated HA, GA, and PA, and all of the ''Parva Naturalia''.[{{cite book |last=Lagerlund |first=Henrik |title=Encyclopedia of Medieval Philosophy: Philosophy Between 500 and 1500 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=x5FiMR3kd_8C&pg=PA502 |date=2010 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-1-4020-9728-7 |pages=502–}}]}} [[Albertus Magnus]] commented extensively on Aristotle, but added his own zoological observations and an encyclopedia of animals based on [[Thomas of Cantimpré]]. Later in the 13th century, [[Thomas Aquinas]] merged Aristotle's metaphysics with Christian theology. Whereas Albert had treated Aristotle's biology as science, writing that experiment was the only safe guide and joining in with the types of observation that Aristotle had made, Aquinas saw Aristotle purely as theory, and Aristotelian thought became associated with [[scholasticism]].{{sfn|Leroi|2014|pages=354–355}} The scholastic [[natural philosophy]] curriculum omitted most of Aristotle's biology, but included ''On the Soul''.{{sfn|Ogilvie|2010}}
===On Renaissance science===
[[File:Rhinoceros 1551 (26482308).jpg|thumb|[[Dürer's Rhinoceros|Dürer's ''Rhinoceros'']] in [[Konrad Gessner]]'s ''[[Historia animalium (Gessner book)|Historia Animalium]]'', 1551]]
Renaissance zoologists made use of Aristotle's zoology in two ways. Especially in Italy, scholars such as [[Pietro Pomponazzi]] and [[Agostino Nifo]] lectured and wrote commentaries on Aristotle. Elsewhere, authors used Aristotle as one of their sources, alongside their own and their colleagues' observations, to create new encyclopedias such as [[Konrad Gessner]]'s 1551 ''[[Historia animalium (Gessner book)|Historia Animalium]]''.{{efn|Gessner borrowed the title from one of Aristotle's books.}} The title and the philosophical approach were Aristotelian, but the work was largely new. [[Edward Wotton (zoologist)|Edward Wotton]] similarly helped to found modern zoology by arranging the animals according to Aristotle's theories, separating out folklore from his 1552 ''De differentiis animalium''.{{sfn|Ogilvie|2010}}[{{cite ODNB |last1=Pollard |first1=A. F. |author-link=Albert Pollard |first2=Patrick |last2=Wallis |title=Wotton, Edward (1492–1555) |year=2004 |url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/29999 |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/29999}}] Aristotle's system of classification had thus remained influential for many centuries.[{{cite journal |last1=Fürst von Lieven |first1=Alexander |last2=Humar |first2=Marcel |title=A Cladistic Analysis of Aristotle's Animal Groups in the "Historia animalium" |journal=History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences |date=2008 |volume=30 |issue=2 |pages=227–262 |jstor=23334371 |pmid=19203017 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23334371 |issn=0391-9714}}][{{cite journal |last1=Ganias |first1=Kostas |last2=Mezarli |first2=Charikleia |last3=Voultsiadou |first3=Eleni |title=Aristotle as an ichthyologist: Exploring Aegean fish diversity 2,400 years ago |journal=Fish and Fisheries |date=November 2017 |volume=18 |issue=6 |pages=1038–1055 |doi=10.1111/faf.12223 |bibcode=2017FiFi...18.1038G |url=https://doi.org/10.1111/faf.12223|url-access=subscription }}][{{cite book |last=Laurin |first=Michel |title=The Advent of PhyloCode: The Continuing Evolution of Biological Nomenclature |date=3 August 2023 |publisher=CRC Press |location=Boca Raton, Fl |isbn=978-1-003-09282-7 |pages=xv + 209 |doi=10.1201/9781003092827 |url=https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/10.1201/9781003092827/advent-phylocode-michel-laurin}}]
===Early Modern rejection===
[[File:Galileos Dialogue Title Page.png|thumb|[[Galileo]]'s champion-figure Salviati convinces Sagredo and defeats the Aristotelian Simplicio, in his 1632 ''[[Dialogo sopra i due massimi sistemi del mondo|Dialogue]]''.]]
In the [[Early Modern]] period, Aristotle came to represent all that was obsolete, scholastic, and wrong, not helped by his association with medieval theology. In 1632, [[Galileo]] represented [[Aristotelianism]] in his ''[[Dialogo sopra i due massimi sistemi del mondo]]'' (Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems) by the [[strawman]] Simplicio ("Simpleton"[{{cite book |last=Zeilik |first=Michael |title=Astronomy: The Evolving Universe |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=f2Xjzu0qR7IC&pg=PA67 |year=2002 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-80090-7 |page=67}}]). That same year, [[William Harvey]] proved Aristotle wrong by demonstrating that [[circulation of the blood#History|blood circulates]].[{{cite book |last1=Harvey |first1=William |author-link1=William Harvey |title=De Motu Cordis |date=1628 |publisher=Wilhelm Fitzer |location=Frankfurt |url=http://www.rarebookroom.org/Control/hvyexc/index.html}}]{{sfn|Leroi|2014|pages=355–361}}
Aristotle still represented the enemy of true science into the 20th century. Leroi noted that in 1985, [[Peter Medawar]] stated in "pure seventeenth century"{{sfn|Leroi|2014|page=353}} tones that Aristotle had assembled "a strange and generally speaking rather tiresome [[wikt:farrago|farrago]] of [[hearsay]], imperfect observation, wishful thinking and credulity amounting to downright gullibility".{{sfn|Leroi|2014|page=353}}[{{cite book |last1=Medawar |first1=Peter B. |author1-link=Peter Medawar |last2=Medawar |first2=J. S. |year=1984 |title=Aristotle to Zoos: a philosophical dictionary of biology |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |isbn=978-0192830432 |page=28}}]
===19th century revival===
Zoologists working in the 19th century, including [[Georges Cuvier]], [[Johannes Peter Müller]],[{{cite journal |last=Müller |first=J. |title=Ueber den glatten Hai des Aristoteles |journal=Physikalische Abhandlungen der Königlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin |date=1840 |pages=187–257}}] and [[Louis Agassiz]] admired Aristotle's biology and investigated some of his observations. [[D'Arcy Thompson]] translated ''History of Animals'' in 1910, making a [[classics|classically educated]] zoologist's informed attempt to identify the animals that Aristotle names, and to interpret and diagram his anatomical descriptions.{{sfn|Leroi|2014|page=361}}[{{cite journal |last1=Bodson |first1=Liliane |title=Aristotle's Statement on the Reproduction of Sharks |journal=Journal of the History of Biology |date=1983 |volume=16 |issue=3 |pages=391–407 |url=http://promethee.philo.ulg.ac.be/zoologica/lbodson/bibl/Sharks_1988.pdf |doi=10.1007/bf00582408|pmid=11611403 |s2cid=20605226 }}]{{sfn|Thompson|1910}}{{sfn|Thompson|1913}}
[[Charles Darwin]] [[Natural selection#Pre-Darwinian theories|quoted a passage]] from [[Physics (Aristotle)|Aristotle's ''Physics'' II 8]] in ''[[The Origin of Species]]'', which entertains the possibility of a selection process following the random combination of body parts. Darwin comments that "We here see the principle of natural selection shadowed forth".[{{cite book |last=Darwin |first=Charles |author-link=Charles Darwin |year=1872 |title=The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life |url=http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?itemID=F391&viewtype=text&pageseq=18 |edition=6th |publisher=John Murray |oclc=1185571 |page=xiii}}] However, two things mitigate against this interpretation. Firstly, Aristotle immediately rejected the possibility of such a process of assembling body parts. Secondly, according to Leroi, Aristotle was in any case discussing [[ontogeny]], the [[Empedocles|Empedoclean]] coming into being of an individual from component parts, not [[phylogeny]] and [[natural selection]].{{sfn|Leroi|2014|pages=272–275}} Darwin considered Aristotle the most important early contributor to biological thought; in an 1882 letter he wrote that "Linnaeus and Cuvier have been my two gods, though in very different ways, but they were mere schoolboys to old Aristotle."[{{cite book |last=Wilkins |first=John |title=Species: a history of the idea |publisher=University of California Press |publication-place=Berkeley |year=2009 |isbn=978-0-520-27139-5 |oclc=314379168 |page=15}}][{{cite book |last=Pasipoularides |first=Ares |title=The Heart's Vortex: Intracardiac Blood Flow Phenomena |publisher=People's Medical Publishing House |publication-place=Shelton, Connecticut |year=2010 |isbn=978-1-60795-033-2 |oclc=680621287 |page=118}}]
===20th and 21st century interest===
[[File:Elephant swimming, Botswana (cropped).jpg|thumb|Elephant swimming, using its trunk as a [[snorkeling|snorkel]], as Aristotle stated]]
Zoologists have frequently mocked Aristotle for errors and unverified secondhand reports. However, modern observation has confirmed one after another of his more surprising claims,{{sfn|Ogilvie|2010}} including the [[active camouflage]] of the octopus[{{cite book |author=Forbes, Peter |date=2009 |title=[[Dazzled and Deceived: Mimicry and Camouflage]] |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=978-0-300-12539-9 |pages=236–239}}] and the ability of elephants to [[Snorkel (anatomy)|snorkel]] with their trunks while swimming.{{sfn|Leroi|2014|pages=137–138}}
Aristotle remains largely unknown to modern scientists, though zoologists are perhaps most likely to mention him as "the father of biology";{{sfn|Leroi|2014|page=352}} the MarineBio Conservation Society notes that he identified "[[crustaceans]], [[echinoderms]], [[mollusks]], and [[fish]]", that [[cetaceans]] are [[mammals]], and that marine vertebrates could be either [[oviparous]] or [[viviparous]], so he "is often referred to as the father of [[marine biology]]".{{efn|As a father to the science, he stands alone. The next figures significant enough to be named in MarineBio's history, for example, are [[Captain James Cook]] and [[Charles Darwin]], some two millennia later.[}}][{{cite web |title=A History of the Study of Marine Biology |url=http://marinebio.org/oceans/history-of-marine-biology/ |publisher=MarineBio Conservation Society |access-date=19 November 2016}}]
Few practicing zoologists explicitly adhere to Aristotle's great chain of being, but its influence is still perceptible in the use of the terms "lower" and "upper" to designate taxa such as groups of plants.[{{cite journal |last1=Rigato |first1=Emanuele |last2=Minelli |first2=Alessandro |title=The great chain of being is still here |journal=Evolution: Education and Outreach |date=28 June 2013 |volume=6 |issue=18 |pages=1–6 |article-number=18 |doi=10.1186/1936-6434-6-18 |url=http://www.evolution-outreach.com/content/6/1/18 |issn=1936-6434|doi-access=free }}]
The evolutionary zoologist [[Armand Leroi]] has taken an interest in Aristotle's biology.{{efn|Leroi has written several papers on the subject, cited in his book, and made a BBC film[{{cite web |title=Professor Armand Leroi |url=http://knightayton.co.uk/male-presenters/prof-armand-leroi |publisher=Knight Ayton Management |access-date=30 July 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131024100719/http://knightayton.co.uk/male-presenters/prof-armand-leroi |archive-date=24 October 2013 |url-status=dead }}] about it.}}{{sfn|Leroi|2014|pages=3 and passim}} The concept of [[Homology (biology)|homology]] began with Aristotle,[{{cite book | last=Panchen | first=A. L. | title=Novartis Foundation Symposium 222 – Homology | chapter=Homology – History of a Concept | series=Novartis Foundation Symposia | volume=222 | year=1999 | pmid=10332750 | pages=5–18; discussion 18–23| doi=10.1002/9780470515655.ch2 | isbn=9780470515655 }}] and the [[evo-devo|evolutionary developmental biologist]] [[Lewis I. Held]] commented that[{{cite book |last1=Held |first1=Lewis I. |author-link=Lewis I. Held |title=Deep Homology?: Uncanny Similarities of Humans and Flies Uncovered by Evo-Devo |date=February 2017 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1316601211 |page=viii}}]
{{blockquote|The deep thinker who would be most amused by .. [[deep homology|deep homologies]] is Aristotle, who was fascinated by the natural world but bewildered by its inner workings.[}}
==Works==
Aristotle did not write anything that resembles a modern, unified textbook of biology. Instead, he wrote a large number of "books" which, taken together, give an idea of his approach to the science. Some of these interlock, referring to each other, while others, such as the drawings of ''The Anatomies'' are lost, but referred to in the ''History of Animals'', where the reader is instructed to look at the diagrams to understand how the animal parts described are arranged,{{sfn|Leroi|2014|page=60}} and it has even been possible to reconstruct (admittedly with much associated uncertainty) what some of these illustrations may have looked like, from Aristotle's descriptions.][{{cite journal |last1=Fürst von Lieven |first1=Alexander |last2=Humar |first2=Marcel |last3=Scholtz |first3=Gerhard |title=Aristotle's lobster: the image in the text |journal=Theory in Biosciences |date=1 February 2021 |volume=140 |issue=1 |pages=1–15 |doi=10.1007/s12064-020-00322-6 |language=en |doi-access=free |pmid=33048298 |pmc=7897620 }}]
Aristotle's main biological works are the five books sometimes grouped as ''On Animals'' (De Animalibus), namely, with the conventional abbreviations shown in parentheses:
* [[History of Animals|''History of Animals'', or ''Inquiries into Animals'']] (Historia Animalium) (HA)
* ''[[Generation of Animals]]'' (De Generatione Animalium) (GA)
* ''[[Movement of Animals]]'' (De Motu Animalium) (DM)
* ''[[Parts of Animals]]'' (De Partibus Animalium) (PA)
* [[Progression of Animals|''Progression of Animals'' or ''On the Gait of Animals'']] (De Incessu Animalium) (IA)
together with ''[[On the Soul]]'' (De Anima) (DA).{{sfn|Ogilvie|2010}}
In addition, a group of seven short works, conventionally forming the ''[[Parva Naturalia]]'' ("Short treatises on Nature"), is also mainly biological:
* ''[[Sense and Sensibilia (Aristotle)|Sense and Sensibilia]]''[[https://web.archive.org/web/20080906215646/http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/a/aristotle/sense/complete.html De Sensu et Sensibilibus]] (Sense)
* ''[[On Memory]]''[[https://web.archive.org/web/20080130161517/http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/a/aristotle/memory/complete.html De Memoria et Reminiscentia]]
* ''[[On Sleep]]''[[https://web.archive.org/web/20080501074932/http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/a/aristotle/sleep/complete.html De Somno et Vigilia]]
* ''[[On Dreams]]''[[https://web.archive.org/web/20080907033456/http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/a/aristotle/dreams/complete.html De Insomniis]]
* ''[[On Divination in Sleep]]''[[https://web.archive.org/web/20080812204909/http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/a/aristotle/prophesy/complete.html De Divinatione per Somnum]]
* ''[[On Length and Shortness of Life]]''[[https://web.archive.org/web/20080817210524/http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/a/aristotle/life/complete.html De Longitudine et Brevitate Vitae]]
* ''[[On Youth, Old Age, Life and Death, and Respiration]]''[[https://web.archive.org/web/20080905074447/http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/a/aristotle/youth/complete.html De Juventute et Senectute, De Vita et Morte, De Respiratione]]
==Notes==
{{notelist}}
==References==
{{reflist|28em}}
==Sources==
* {{cite book |last=Guthrie |first=W. K. C. |title=A History of Greek Philosophy |volume=1 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |date=1981 }}
* {{cite book |last=Leroi |first=Armand Marie |editor=Föllinger, S. |author-link=Armand Marie Leroi |chapter=Function and Constraint in Aristotle and Evolutionary Theory |title=Was ist 'Leben'? Aristoteles' Anschauungen zur Entstehung und Funktionsweise von Leben |date=2010 |publisher=Franz Steiner Verlag |pages=261–284 }}
* {{cite book |last=Leroi |first=Armand Marie |author-link=Armand Marie Leroi |title=The Lagoon: How Aristotle Invented Science |title-link=Aristotle's Lagoon |publisher=Bloomsbury |date=2014 |isbn=978-1-4088-3622-4 }}
* {{cite book |last=Mason |first=Stephen F. |title=A History of the Sciences |publisher=P. F. Collier |date=1962 |orig-year=1953 |isbn=0-02-093400-9 }}
* {{cite book |last1=Mayr |first1=Ernst |author-link1=Ernst Mayr |title=The Growth of Biological Thought: Diversity, Evolution, and Inheritance |date=1985 |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=978-0-674-36446-2 }}
* {{cite book |last1=Ogilvie |first1=Brian W. |chapter=Zoology |publisher=Harvard University Press |date=2010 |isbn=978-0-674-07227-5 |pages=1000–1001 |editor1=Grafton, Anthony|editor2=Most, Glenn W.|editor3=Settis, Salvatore |title=The Classical Tradition }}
* {{cite book |last=Singer |first=Charles |title=A Short History of Biology |publisher=Oxford University Press |date=1931}}
* {{cite book |last=Taylor |first=Henry Osborn |author-link=Henry Osborn Taylor |archive-date=27 March 2006 |title=Greek Biology and Medicine |date=1922 |chapter=Chapter 3: Aristotle's Biology |url-status=usurped | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060327222953/http://www.ancientlibrary.com/medicine/0051.html |url=http://www.ancientlibrary.com/medicine/0051.html }}
* {{cite book |last=Thompson |first=D'Arcy Wentworth |author-link1=D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson |chapter=Historia animalium |title=The works of Aristotle translated into English |editor1=Ross, W. D.|editor2=Smith, J. A. |date=1910 |publisher=Clarendon Press |url=https://archive.org/details/historiaanimaliu00aris_0}}
* {{cite book |last=Thompson |first=D'Arcy Wentworth |author-link1=D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson |title=On Aristotle as a biologist |publisher=Clarendon Press |year=1913 |url=https://archive.org/details/onaristotleasbio00thomrich }}
{{Aristotelianism}}
{{History of biology}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2017}}
[[Category:History of biology]]
[[Category:Philosophy of Aristotle| Biology]]
[[Category:History of zoology]]
[[Category:Ancient Greek science]]