Journal of the History of Biology 32 (1):3-30 (1999)
Abstract |
Charles Darwin's famous 1882 letter, in response to a gift by his friend, William Ogle of Ogle's recent translation of Aristotle's "Parts of Animals," in which Darwin remarks that his "two gods," Linnaeus and Cuvier, were "mere school-boys to old Aristotle," has been though to be only an extravagantly worded gesture of politeness. However, a close examination of this and other Darwin letters, and of references to Aristotle in Darwin's earlier work, shows that the famous letter was written several weeks after a first, polite letter of thanks, and was carefully formulated and literally meant. Indeed, it reflected an authentic, and substantial, increase in Darwin's already high respect for Aristotle, as a result of a careful reading both of Ogle's Introduction and of more or less the portion of Ogle's translation which Darwin says he has read. Aristotle's promotion to the pantheon, as an examination of the basis for Darwin's admiration of Linnaeus and Cuvier suggests, was most likely the result specifically of Darwin's late discovery that the man he already knew as "one of the greatest... observers that ever lived" was also the ancient equivalent both of the great modern systematist and of the great modern advocate of comparative functional explanation. It may also have reflected some real insight on Darwin's part into the teleological aspect of Aristotle's thought, indeed more insight than Ogle himself had achieved, as a portion of their correspondence reveals
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Keywords | Darwin Aristotle Ogle Linnaeus Cuvier teleology classification functional explanation |
Categories | (categorize this paper) |
DOI | 10.1023/A:1004404206298 |
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All in the Family: The History and Philosophy of Experimental Philosophy.Justin Sytsma, Joseph Ulatowski & Chad Gonnerman - forthcoming - In Alexander Max Bauer & Stephan Kornmesser (eds.), The Compact Compendium of Experimental Philosophy.
Sobre la función de las emociones en animales no racionales: explicaciones aristotélicas sin Aristóteles.Gabriela Rossi - 2019 - Anales Del Seminario de Historia de la Filosofía 36 (3):595-615.
The Middle Included - Logos in Aristotle.Omer Aygun - 2016 - Evanston, Illinois, Amerika Birleşik Devletleri: Northwestern University Press.
Aristoteles’in Dört Neden Kuramının Günümüz Biyolojisi Açısından Önemi.Özlem Yilmaz - 2013 - FLSF Felsefe Ve Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi 16 (16):221-230.
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