Book contents
- Cosmology and Biology in Ancient Philosophy
- Cosmology and Biology in Ancient Philosophy
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction The Intersection of Biology and Cosmology in Ancient Philosophy
- Chapter 1 Souls and Cosmos before Plato
- Chapter 2 The Ensouled Cosmos in Plato’s Timaeus
- Chapter 3 Platonic ‘Desmology’ and the Body of the World Animal (Tim. 30c–34a)
- Chapter 4 The World Soul Takes Command
- Chapter 5 Begotten and Made
- Chapter 6 The De Motu Animalium on the Movement of the Heavens
- Chapter 7 Biology and Cosmology in Aristotle
- Chapter 8 Recapitulation Theory and Transcendental Morphology in Antiquity
- Chapter 9 The Stoics’ Empiricist Model of Divine Thought
- Chapter 10 Why Is the Cosmos Intelligent?
- Chapter 11 Cardiology and Cosmology in Post-Chrysippean Stoicism
- Chapter 12 The Agency of the World
- Chapter 13 God and the Material World
- Chapter 14 At the Intersection of Cosmology and Biology
- Chapter 15 Is the Heaven an Animal?
- References
- Index
- Index Locorum
Chapter 7 - Biology and Cosmology in Aristotle
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 May 2021
- Cosmology and Biology in Ancient Philosophy
- Cosmology and Biology in Ancient Philosophy
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction The Intersection of Biology and Cosmology in Ancient Philosophy
- Chapter 1 Souls and Cosmos before Plato
- Chapter 2 The Ensouled Cosmos in Plato’s Timaeus
- Chapter 3 Platonic ‘Desmology’ and the Body of the World Animal (Tim. 30c–34a)
- Chapter 4 The World Soul Takes Command
- Chapter 5 Begotten and Made
- Chapter 6 The De Motu Animalium on the Movement of the Heavens
- Chapter 7 Biology and Cosmology in Aristotle
- Chapter 8 Recapitulation Theory and Transcendental Morphology in Antiquity
- Chapter 9 The Stoics’ Empiricist Model of Divine Thought
- Chapter 10 Why Is the Cosmos Intelligent?
- Chapter 11 Cardiology and Cosmology in Post-Chrysippean Stoicism
- Chapter 12 The Agency of the World
- Chapter 13 God and the Material World
- Chapter 14 At the Intersection of Cosmology and Biology
- Chapter 15 Is the Heaven an Animal?
- References
- Index
- Index Locorum
Summary
In this chapter, I focus on three different topics to illustrate the complicated and often surprising ways in which Aristotle’s investigations of animals and of the heavens are related to one another. After an introductory discussion of how Aristotle differentiates these different scientific investigations of nature from one another, this chapter looks at (1) the dependence of Aristotle’s account of cosmic directionality (in De caelo II.4) on his discussion of directional concepts in his account of animal locomotion (De incessu animalium 1-6); (2) the relationship between his account of gestation periods in De generatione animalium IV.10 and his understanding of the complex relationship between the solar and lunar cycles; and (3) his teleological explanation of why there are distinct male and female contributors to animal generation (and why animals generate at all) at the beginning of De generatione animalium II as it relates to his discussion of the cyclical nature of all generation that closes Generatione et Corruptione II.11.
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- Cosmology and Biology in Ancient PhilosophyFrom Thales to Avicenna, pp. 109 - 130Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2021