In "History of Animals" Aristotle analyzes "differences"--in parts,
activities, modes of life, and character--across the animal
kingdom, in preparation for establishing their causes, which are
the concern of his other zoological works. Over 500 species of
animals are considered: shellfish, insects, birds, fish, reptiles,
amphibians, and mammals--including human beings.
In Books I-IV Aristotle gives a comparative survey of internal
and external body parts, including tissues and fluids, and of sense
faculties and voice. Books V-VI study reproductive methods,
breeding habits, and embryogenesis as well as some secondary sex
differences. In Books VII-IX, Aristotle examines differences among
animals in feeding; in habitat, hibernation, migration; in enmities
and sociability; in disposition (including differences related to
gender) and intelligence. Here too he describes the human
reproductive system, conception, pregnancy, and obstetrics. Book X
establishes the female's contribution to generation.
The Loeb edition of "History of Animals" is in three volumes. A
full index to all ten books is included in the third (Volume XI of
the Aristotle edition).
Related volumes
Aristotle's biological corpus includes not only "History of
Animals," but also "Parts of Animals, Movement of Animals,
Progression of Animals," "Generation of Animals," and significant
parts of "On the Soul" and "Parva Naturalia," Aristotle's general
methodology--"first we must grasp the differences, then try to
discover the causes" (Ha 1.6)--is applied to the study of plants by
his younger co-worker and heir to his school, Theophrastus:
"Enquiry into Plants" studies differences across the plant kingdom,
while "DeCausis Plantarum" studies their causes. In the later
ancient world, both Pliny's "Natural History" and Aelian's "On the
Characteristics of Animals" draw significantly on Aristotle's
biological work.
General
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