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Chapter 6 - Aristotle on Seed

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 January 2022

Caleb Cohoe
Affiliation:
Metropolitan State University of Denver
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Summary

This chapter addresses an interpretive question about why Aristotle identifies generation, growth, and nourishment as the three distinct functions or activities of nutritive soul. Scholars typically try to explain this by appealing to the shared goal of these activities, though there is no consensus about what that goal is: Does Aristotle think that generation is a way of keeping oneself alive (and thus that the shared goal is self-maintenance), or is nourishment really a quasi-generative activity (and thus that the shared goal is “form (re)production”)? Rather than taking that approach, Gelber offers a different but complementary way of accounting for the unity of these activities, by focusing on the continuity of their shared physiological basis. As it is argued here, the fact that these biological processes form a continuous cycle stems from Aristotle’s adherence, in his biological theory, to principles from his hylomorphic metaphysics. Attending to the details in works such as Generation of Animals that focus on the mechanisms underlying generation, growth, and nourishment, it is shown how we can construct a coherent account of the unity of the three nutritive soul activities.

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Aristotle's On the Soul
A Critical Guide
, pp. 104 - 121
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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