Aristotle on Life and Death [Paperback]

Aristotle'sParva Naturaliaculminates in definitions of the stages of the life cycle, from the generation of a new living thing up to death. Aristotle thinks of living things as food burners: they nourish themselves, and so, in some cases, possess the capacity for higher living functions such as perceiving. Their burning must be balanced, if it is to continue - and one way they do this is through breathing. Nonetheless, all such burning naturally develops and declines, thus describing the life span of the being concerned. This book provides a detailed reading of the end of theParva Naturalia( On the Length and Shortness of Life , On Youth, Old Age, Life and Death , including On Breathing ), and shows how the investigation into life begun in theDe Animais completed in the Parva Naturalia, culminating in definitions of the stages of the life cycle, from generation of a new living thing up to death, using the activity of nutrition.

Aristotle's Parva Naturalia culminates in definitions of the stages of the life cycle, from the generation of a new living thing up to death. This book provides a detailed reading of the end of the Parva Naturalia and shows how it completes the investigation into life begun in the De Anima .

Abbreviations and conventions
Acknowledgements
1. Life-cycles
1.1 Mortals and Others
1.2 Interpreting Aristotle on Life and Death
1.3 Aristotle and the explanation of life-cycles
2. Nature
2.1 Nature and Nutrition
2.2 Nature as Form
2.3 Heuristic and ontological teleology
3. Soul
3.1 The project of de Anima and its completion in Parva Naturalia
3.2 The first actuality of a natural body with organs
3.3 Growth and nutrition
3.4 Natural form and natural matter: what perishes and what does not
3.5 The seat of the soul
4. Body
4.1 Balanced capacities in Aristotelian mixtures
4.2 Living things and their surroundings
4.3 The explanation of life-span: the hot andlÞ