ARISTOTLE 



residence at Athens, when he was engaged in organiz- 

 ing systematic observation and speciahzed research, 

 which produced, among other results, the collection 

 of 158 constitutions of states (of which the Constitution 

 of Athens, recovered at the end of the IQth century, 

 is one), as well as the Historia animalium.'^ The 

 zoological works have not been subjected to such 

 minute criticism as, for instance, the Metaphysics and 

 Politics, but, according to Jaeger, the H.A. shows 

 clear traces of different authors, and he suggests that 

 the work of observation was distributed among several 

 persons from the outset. It is probable that some 

 collection of material was mad^by Aristotle himself ^ 

 between the two periods of his residence at Athens. 

 But the real importance of these works is that they 

 represent the first attempt in Europe to observe and 

 describe in a scientific way the individual living 

 object. 

 Aristotle's Aristotle's method may be described as substanti- 

 ally the same as that of modern scientific workers : 

 it is inductive-deductive, as opposed on the one hand 

 to earlier (and later) methods of pure deduction from 

 a priori premisses, and on the other hand to the 

 Baconian method of almost exclusive induction. 

 Aristotle often complains that his predecessors' work 

 was marred by insufficient observation, and the 

 importance which he himself attached to careful and 

 thorough observation is apparent throughout the 

 zoological treatises. Of particular interest in this 

 connexion are his observations of the viviparous dog- 

 fish {Mustelus laevis), observations not repeated in 



" See W. D. Ross, Aristotle, and W. W. Jaeger, Aristotle. 



'' See D. W. Thompson, prefatory note to translation of 

 H.A., p. vii. 

 viii 



method. 



