Aristotle’s Biology

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.

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Guests

• Armand Leroi No other episodes
  Professor of Evolutionary Development Biology at Imperial College London
• Myrto Hatzimichali No other episodes
  Lecturer in Classics at the University of Cambridge
• Sophia Connell 2 episodes
  Lecturer in Philosophy at Birkbeck, University of London

Reading list

• Animals: A History
  Peter Adamson and G. Fay Edwards (Oxford University Press, 2018) Google Books →
• The History of Animals Books VII-X
  Aristotle (Harvard University Press, 1991) Google Books →
• On the Parts of Animals
  Aristotle (trans. James Lennox) (Clarendon, 2001) Google Books →
• Generation of Animals
  Aristotle (trans. A. Peck) (Harvard University Press, 1942) Google Books →
• Aristotle on Female Animals: A Study of the Generation of Animals
  S. Connell (Cambridge University Press, 2016) Google Books →
• Philosophical Issues in Aristotle's Biology
  A. Gotthelf and J. G. Lennox (eds.) (Cambridge University Press, 1987) Google Books →
• A Portrait of Aristotle
  Marjorie Grene (University of Chicago Press, 1963) Google Books →
• Aristotle on Life and Death
  R. King (Duckworth, 2001) Google Books →
• Being, Nature, and Life in Aristotle
  J. Lennox and R. Bolton (eds.) (Cambridge University Press, 2010) Google Books →
• Aristotle's Philosophy of Biology: Studies in the Origins of Life Sciences
  J. Lennox (Cambridge University Press, 2001) Google Books →
• The Lagoon: How Aristotle Invented Science
  Armand Marie Leroi (Bloomsbury, 2014) Google Books →
• Aristotelian Explorations
  G.E.R. Lloyd (Cambridge University Press, 1996) Google Books →
• Aristotle: His Life and School
  Carlo Natali (Princeton University Press, 2013) Google Books →
• Aristotle as Biologist
  D'Arcy Thompson (Oxford University Press, 1913) Google Books →

Related episodes

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  2 Nov, 2023 170 Ethics
• Aristotle’s Poetics
  
  27 Jan, 2011 800 Literature, rhetoric and criticism
• The Translation Movement
  
  2 Oct, 2008 500 Science
• Aristotle’s Politics
  
  6 Nov, 2008 320 Political science
• Socrates
  
  27 Sep, 2007 180 Ancient, medieval, and Eastern philosophy
• Pliny’s Natural History
  
  8 Jul, 2010 500 Science
• Xenophon
  
  26 May, 2011 930 History of the Ancient World
• Galen
  
  10 Oct, 2013 610 Medicine and health
• Robert Boyle
  
  12 Jun, 2014 540 Chemistry
• Logic
  
  21 Oct, 2010 160 Philosophical logic

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Programme ID: m0002cfd

Episode page: bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0002cfd

Auto-category: 570 (Biology)

Hello (First sentence from this episode)

Hello. Aristotle, 384 to 322 BC, was not only a philosopher but also a great biologist, studying life to help explain the goal of life.