>>Thank you for joining me in the History
of Science Collections of the University of
Oklahoma Libraries. Let's look at two books
from the vault that throw light on the story
of Aristotle.By almost any measure, Aristotle,
a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander
the Great, could be regarded as the most successful
scientist ever to have lived. Many people
regard Aristotle as a philosopher who got
a lot wrong, but if science is the art of
asking fruitful questions, more than just
getting the right answer, then for almost
any topic in natural science, Aristotle either
started or invigorated a long-standing conversation.
Areas of scientific inquiry which Aristotle
set on a productive footing include biology,
physics, cosmology, meteorology, geology,
chemistry, logic, and metaphysics. This compilation
of Aristotelian texts also includes commentaries
and marginal notes, which will be of interest
to a future reader. But to represent Aristotle's
vast impact across all of the natural sciences,
I would choose the first publication of Aristotle's
biological works, printed in Venice in 1476.
While Plato emphasized astronomy as the ennobling
science, Aristotle insisted that biology,
even the study of the lowliest organisms,
is also a path to beauty, at least for one
who understands the causes. For Aristotle,
nature is an organism. So nature is known
through the study of biology. In these works
Aristotle reports his observations of dissections
of the dogshark, he perceptively studied bees,
and the incubation of birds' eggs. Some of
Aristotle's observations were not replicated
until modern times. Living beings, for Aristotle,
were the paradigm examples of "substance"
for his philosophy, and lay at the theoretical
foundation of his thought.In this book, leather
tabs occur at the beginning of major sections
in the book. Aristotle's biological works
were numerous and amounted to over a fourth
of his total works. This compilation of his
biological works includes copious annotations
by perhaps a dozen or more different readers,
each with a distinctive form of handwriting.
One can even see distinctive ways of drawing
a pointing hand to highlight a line of text.
Paleographic analysis of this book, a study
of the handwriting, would create a profile
of what each early modern reader found interesting
and help us to understand the appeal and impact
of Aristotle on biology in the decades after
it was printed. Among both philosophers and
historians, interest in Aristotle's biology
remains vigorous today. Science is a story.
What stories do you want to hear and tell
about Aristotle?
