Aristotle's Biology
In Our Time
BBC
4.6 • 9.9K Ratings
🗓️ 7 February 2019
⏱️ 50 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the remarkable achievement of Aristotle (384-322BC) in the realm of biological investigation, for which he has been called the originator of the scientific study of life. Known mainly as a philosopher and the tutor for Alexander the Great, who reportedly sent him animal specimens from his conquests, Aristotle examined a wide range of life forms while by the Sea of Marmara and then on the island of Lesbos. Some ideas, such as the the spontaneous generation of flies, did not survive later scrutiny, yet his influence was extraordinary and his work was unequalled until the early modern period.
The image above is of the egg and embryo of a dogfish, one of the animals Aristotle described accurately as he recorded their development.
With
Armand Leroi Professor of Evolutionary Development Biology at Imperial College London
Myrto Hatzimichali Lecturer in Classics at the University of Cambridge
And
Sophia Connell Lecturer in Philosophy at Birkbeck, University of London
Producer: Simon Tillotson
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds Music Radio Podcasts |
| 0:04.8 | Thanks for downloading this episode of In Our Time. |
| 0:07.5 | There's a reading list to go with it on our website and you can get news about our programs |
| 0:11.4 | if you follow us on Twitter at BBC In Our Time. |
| 0:14.8 | I hope you enjoyed the programs. |
| 0:16.6 | Hello, Irish Total 384-322BC was not only a philosopher but also a great biologist studying |
| 0:23.6 | life to help explain the goal of life. |
| 0:26.5 | As well as the purpose of life, you wanted to know what living things were made from and |
| 0:30.8 | where the information came from that made them that way and you wanted to know what caused |
| 0:35.4 | them to be alive. |
| 0:36.4 | While other Greek philosophers only thought of such things, Aristotle was the one who |
| 0:40.6 | had done in his hands an easy exam in real life, scientifically from squid stomachs to |
| 0:45.1 | fish gills to chick embryos and he developed ideas that were influential for 2,000 years |
| 0:50.0 | and are arguably still today. |
| 0:52.7 | Let me discuss Aristotle's biology. |
| 0:54.7 | I'm on law, professor of evolutionary development biology at Imperial College London. |
| 0:59.8 | Mio Toe had sima Carly, lecturer in classics at the University of Cambridge and Sophia Connell, |
| 1:05.3 | lecturer in philosophy at Birkbeck University of London. |
| 1:08.2 | I'm on law. |
| 1:09.2 | How did he, as a philosopher in Athens, become a hands-on biologist? |
| 1:15.2 | We don't really know and the reason for that is because we don't have Aristotle's diary. |
| 1:21.4 | All we have are these works, magnificent and exhaustive in their scope and yet which |
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