Teleology, First Principles, and Scientific Method in Aristotle's Biology [Hardcover]

This volume presents an interconnected set of sixteen essays, four of which are previously unpublished, by Allan Gotthelf--one of the leading experts in the study of Aristotle's biological writings. Gotthelf addresses three main topics across Aristotle's three main biological treatises. Starting with his own ground-breaking study of Aristotle's natural teleology and its illuminating relationship with theGeneration of Animals, Gotthelf proceeds to the axiomatic structure of biological explanation (and the first principles such explanation proceeds from) in theParts of Animals. After an exploration of the implications of these two treatises for our understanding of Aristotle's metaphysics, Gotthelf examines important aspects of the method by which Aristotle organizes his data in theHistory of Animalsto make possible such a systematic, explanatory study of animals, offering a new view of the place of classification in that enterprise. In a concluding section on 'Aristotle as Theoretical Biologist', Gotthelf explores the basis of Charles Darwin's great praise of Aristotle and, in the first printing of a lecture delivered worldwide, provides an overview of Aristotle as a philosophically-oriented scientist, and 'a proper verdict' on his greatness as scientist.

Preface
Acknowledgments
PART I: Teleology, Irreducibility, and the Generation of Animals (GA)
1. Aristotle's Conception of Final Causation
2. The Place of the Good in Aristotle's Natural Teleology
3. Understanding Aristotle's Teleology
4. Teleology and Embryogenesis in Aristotle's Generation of Animals II.6
5. 'What's Teleology Got to Do with It?'--A Reinterpretation of Aristotle's Generation of Animals V,co-authored with Mariska Leunissen
6. Teleology and Spontaneous Generation in Aristotle: A Discussion
PART II: First Principles and Explanatory Structure in the Parts of Animals (PA)
7. First Principles in Arl