Journal of the History of Biology 39 (3):425-455 (2006)
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Abstract |
In this paper I address an important question in Aristotle’s biology, What are the causal mechanisms behind the transmission of biological form? Aristotle’s answer to this question, I argue, is found in Generation of Animals Book 4 in connection with his investigation into the phenomenon of inheritance. There we are told that an organism’s reproductive material contains a set of "movements" which are derived from the various "potentials" of its nature (the internal principle of change that initiates and controls development). These movements, I suggest, function as specialized vehicles for communicating the parts of the parent’s heritable form during the act of reproduction. After exploring the details of this mechanism, I then take up Aristotle’s theory of inheritance proper. At the heart of the theory are three general principles (or 'laws') that govern the interactions between the maternal and paternal movements, the outcome of which determines the pattern of inheritance for the offspring. Although this paper is primarily aimed at providing a detailed analysis of Aristotle’s account of inheritance, the results of that analysis have implications for other areas of Aristotle’s biology. One of the most interesting of these is the question of whether Aristotle’s biology is anti-evolutionary (as traditionally assumed) or whether (as I argue) it leaves room for a theory of evolution by natural selection, even if Aristotle himself never took that step.
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Keywords | Individual variation Inheritance Form and matter |
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DOI | 10.1007/s10739-005-3058-y |
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References found in this work BETA
Aristotle’s Philosophy of Biology: Studies in the Origins of Life Science.James G. Lennox - 2000 - Cambridge University Press.
Substance, Form, and Psyche: An Aristotelean Metaphysics.Montgomery Furth - 1988 - Cambridge University Press.
Philosophical Issues in Aristotle's Biology.Allan Gotthelf & James G. Lennox (eds.) - 1987 - Cambridge University Press.
Substance, Form, and Psyche: An Aristotelean Metaphysics.Montgomery Furth - 2007 - Cambridge University Press.
Aristotle’s Philosophy of Biology: Studies in the Origins of Life Science.James G. Lennox - 2001 - Journal of the History of Biology 36 (1):223-224.
View all 16 references / Add more references
Citations of this work BETA
Aristotle on Exceptions to Essences in Biology.Petter Sandstad - 2016 - In Benedikt Strobel & Georg Wöhrle (eds.), Angewandte Epistemologie in antiker Philosophie und Wissenschaft, AKAN-Einzelschriften 11. Trier: Wissenschaftlicher Verlag Trier. pp. 69-92.
Consequence Etiology and Biological Teleology in Aristotle and Darwin.David J. Depew - 2008 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences 39 (4):379-390.
Consequence Etiology and Biological Teleology in Aristotle and Darwin.David J. Depew - 2008 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences 39 (4):379-390.
‘What’s Teleology Got To Do With It?’ A Reinterpretation of Aristotle’s Generation of Animals V.Mariska Leunissen & Allan Gotthelf - 2010 - Phronesis 55 (4):325-356.
View all 8 citations / Add more citations
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