IsisCB Explore

Article ID: CBB588890568

The Axes of Symmetry. Morphology in Aristotle’s Biology (2016)

Apeiron
Volume: 49
Issue: 1
Pages: 1-31

DOI: 10.1515/apeiron-2014-0019

URI: http://www.degruyter.com.ezproxy.lib.ou.edu/view/j/apeiron.2016.49.issue-1/apeiron-2014-0019/apeiron-2014-0019.xml?format=INT

Outside Links

WorldCat

Google Scholar

JSTOR

Academia.edu

Mathematics Morphology Teleology Biology Animal morphology Empedocles of Agrigentum Democritos of Abdera Aristotle

My aim in this paper is to outline and discuss the role played in Aristotle’s inquiry into living things by his extensive comparative account of the body plan of different kinds of animals, and of the shapes and figures of their bodily parts, which we may call his morphology. In tackling this question, I begin with Aristotle’s statement that the diagrammatical representation of the body’s organization based on the axes of symmetry is the second most important principle of the inquiry on living things, after the teleology principle. I discuss, in turn, his concern about the applicability of the mathematical approach to the living shapes; his analysis of the ways in which form is related to limit; and his criticism of Democritus’ and Empedocles’ treatment of form and shape. Through exploring the ways in which Aristotle recurs to the morphology principle in the practice of biology, I point out that morphology provides a key methodological framework for the two most important tasks of the research program of the inquiry on living things – the definition of the kinds and the explanation of the causes.

...More

Citation URI

https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB588890568/

Citations Indexes

Similar Citations

Article Depew, David J.; (2008)
Consequence Etiology and Biological Teleology in Aristotle and Darwin (/isis/citation/CBB000831719/)

Article Anderson, Gemma; (2014)
Endangered: A Study of Morphological Drawing in Zoological Taxonomy (/isis/citation/CBB001201296/)

Article Grene, Marjorie; (2001)
Darwin, Cuvier, and Geoffroy: Comments and Questions (/isis/citation/CBB000770070/)

Article Gurkin, V.A.; (1992)
Issledovaniia Aristotelia po morfologii zhivotnykh. (Aristotle's research on animal morphology) (/isis/citation/CBB000051018/)

Article Khafiz Kerimov; (2021)
Καθάπερ ἄνθρωπος φρόνιμος: Prudence in Aristotle’s Ethics and Biology (/isis/citation/CBB109022079/)

Book Giuseppe Cambiano; (2006)
Figure, macchine, sogni. Saggi sulla scienza antica (/isis/citation/CBB013124835/)

Thesis Scharle, Margaret Elizabeth; (2005)
The Place of the Elements in Aristotle's Natural Teleology (/isis/citation/CBB001561693/)

Article Andrade Martins, Roberto de; (2014)
A doutrina das causas finais na Antiguidade. 3. A teleologia na natureza, de Teofrasto a Galeno (/isis/citation/CBB001451429/)

Article Short, T. L.; (2002)
Darwin's Concept of Final Cause: Neither New nor Trivial (/isis/citation/CBB000202574/)

Chapter Pellegrin, Pierre; (2007)
Les études sur la biologie d'Aristote: un bilan provisoire (/isis/citation/CBB001022497/)

Book Gotthelf, Allan; Leunissen, Mariska; Beullens, Pieter; (2012)
Teleology, First Principles and Scientific Method in Aristotle's Biology (/isis/citation/CBB001250500/)

Article Turner, Derek; (2000)
The Functions of Fossils: Inference and Explanation in Functional Morphology (/isis/citation/CBB000770652/)

Article Nicholas Aubin; (2021)
Natural Teleology versus Material Determinism and Chance: Al-'Āmirī against Empedocles and Galen on Nature and Soul (/isis/citation/CBB177931396/)

Article Huneman, Philippe; (2006)
Naturalising Purpose: From Comparative Anatomy to the “Adventure of Reason” (/isis/citation/CBB000770746/)

Article Cramer, Friedrich; (1983)
“Denn nur also beschränkt war je das Vollkommene möglich ...”: Eine wissenschaftstheoretische Interpretation von Goethes Gedicht “Metamorphose der Tiere” (/isis/citation/CBB000016680/)

Book Luciana Repici; (2020)
Uomini capovolti. Le piante nel pensiero dei Greci (/isis/citation/CBB652398558/)

Book Sedley, David N.; (2007)
Creationism and Its Critics in Antiquity (/isis/citation/CBB000830460/)

Article Nispen Henri van; (2018)
A Woven Web of Guesses: Xenophanes of Colophon (/isis/citation/CBB744785169/)

Chapter Dougherty, Frank W.P.; (1994)
Goethes zoologische Morphologie und die Gesetze der Baukunst (/isis/citation/CBB000063979/)

Chapter Bodson, Liliane; (1996)
Pourquoi Aristote n'a pas cité Démocrite (68 B 154 D6-Kr) dans l'Histoire des Animaux, VIII (IX), 612b 18-22 (/isis/citation/CBB000072004/)

Comments

{{ comment.created_by.username }} on {{ comment.created_on | date:'medium' }}