Article ID: CBB109022079

Καθάπερ ἄνθρωπος φρόνιμος: Prudence in Aristotle’s Ethics and Biology (2021)

unapi

It is a well-known feature of Aristotle’s biology that he resorts to the analogy with human art to explain the concept of final causality operative in living things. In this Aristotle’s theory of biology is explicitly anti-Empedoclean: whereas for Empedocles a randomly generated animal part is preserved if it happens to suit an expedient function, for Aristotle the formal nature produces an animal part with a useful function in view. In this article, by contrast, I focus on those cases in Aristotle’s biology in which nature adapts an apparently purposeless part to some useful function (for example, the omentum). I argue that such cases not only indicate a partial return of Empedocles’ logic of generation but are also thought by Aristotle by analogy with human prudence (as opposed to human art). To consider Aristotle’s account of nature as prudent is not only to disclose a hitherto underappreciated aspect of his biology but also to gain a more comprehensive understanding of prudence in his ethics.

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Authors & Contributors
Lennox, James G.
Andrea L. Carbone
Soardi, Marzia
Montinari, Maria Rosa
Ribera-Martin, Ignacio De
Carraro, Nicola
Concepts
Animals
Biology
Philosophy
Ethics
Classification in biology
Zoology
Time Periods
Ancient
Early modern
Renaissance
19th century
Places
Greece
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