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Chapter 1 - Biology and Theology in Aristotle’s Theoretical and Practical Sciences

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 May 2021

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

Biology and theology are interdependent theoretical sciences for Aristotle. In prominent discussions of the divine things (the stars and their unmoved movers) Aristotle appeals to the science of living things, and in prominent discussions of the nature of plants and animals Aristotle appeals to the nature of the divine. There is in fact a single continuous series of living things that includes gods, humans, animals, and plants, all of them living and, in a way, divine. Aristotle has this continuum of divine beings, and a theory of value that corresponds to it, in mind not only in key parts of his theology and natural science (including astrophysics and biology), but also in his practical philosophy. Here I can do little more than call attention to some important texts and attempt to offer a coherent account of them, without being able to enter into the usual interpretive disputes. I begin by clarifying the terms “theology” and “biology” and their place in Aristotle’s division of philosophy. Next, I discuss how Aristotle’s theology is informed by his biology, and then how his biology is informed by his theology. I end by discussing some implications of the interdependence of biology and theology for Aristotle’s ethics and exhortation to philosophy.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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References

Guide to Further Reading

Burkert, W. 1985. Greek Religion (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press).Google Scholar
Baghdassarian, F. 2016. La question du divin chez Aristote (Louvain-la-neuve: Peeters).Google Scholar
Bodéüs, R. 2000. Aristotle and the Theology of the Living Immortals (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press).Google Scholar
Menn, S. 1992. “Aristotle and Plato on God as Nous and as the Good,” Review of Metaphysics 45: 543573.Google Scholar
Menn, S. 2012. “Aristotle’s Theology,” in Shields, C. (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Aristotle (Oxford University Press), 422464.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Segev, M. 2018. Aristotle on Religion (Cambridge University Press).Google Scholar
Lloyd, G. E. R. 1983a. Science, Folklore, and Ideology: Studies in the Life Sciences in Ancient Greece (Cambridge University Press).Google Scholar
Lloyd, G. E. R. 1996a. Aristotelian Explorations (Cambridge University Press).Google Scholar
Lennox, J. G. 1999b. “The Place of Mankind in Aristotle’s Biology,” Philosophical Topics 27: 116.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lennox, J. G. 2001b. Aristotle’s Philosophy of Biology: Studies in the Origin of Life Science (Cambridge Studies in Philosophy and Biology) (Cambridge University Press).Google Scholar
Sedley, D. 2007. Creationism and its Critics in Antiquity (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Falcon, A. 2005. Aristotle and the Science of Nature: Unity Without Uniformity (Cambridge University Press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Granger, H. 1985. “The Scala Naturae and the Continuity of Kinds,” Phronesis 30: 181200.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Granger, H. 1987. “Aristotle and the Finitude of Natural Kinds,” Philosophy 62: 523526.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gottlieb, P. and Sober, E. 2017. “Aristotle on ‘Nature Does Nothing in Vain’,” Hopos: The Journal of the International Society for the History of Philosophy of Science 7(2): 246271.Google Scholar

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