Aristotle : a chapter from the history of science, including analyses of Aristotle's scientific writings / by George Henry Lewes.

  • Lewes George Henry, 1817-1878.
Date:
1864
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Aristotle : a chapter from the history of science, including analyses of Aristotle's scientific writings / by George Henry Lewes. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    ago. Even the anatomist is no longer contented to display what the tissues are; he must also trace their origin, and show how they became what they are. The origin and development of Science are questions of high interest, and fortunately admit of being handled even by those who would shrink from the gigantic difficulties of a History of the Sciences. I have been for many years pre- paring myself to attempt a sketch of the Embryology of Science, so to speak,—an exposition of the great momenta in scientific development; and the present volume is the first portion of such an exposition, which I publish separately because in itself it forms a monograph, and because I may never live to com- plete the larger scheme. As a monograph it has not, I believe, been forestalled. Numerous and exhaustive as are the works devoted to Aristotle's moral and metaphysical v^ritings, there is not one which attempts to display, with any fulness, his scientific researches. The only considerable treatise which touches on this ground,* is strictly confined within the limits of Natural History. Although Aristotle mainly represents the science of twenty centuries, his scientific writings are almost unknown in England. Casual citations, mostly at secondhand, and vague eulogies, often betraying great misconception, are abundant; but rare indeed is the indication of any accurate appreciation extending beyond two works, the De Animd, and the History of Animals. The absence of translations is at once a cause and a sign of this neglect. Of the 15 treatises analyzed in the present volume, only the two just named have been translated. * J. B. Meyer: Aristoteles Thierkunde, Ein Beifrag zur Geschichte der Zoologie, Physiologic^ und alien Philosophie. Berlin, 1855,