PARTS OF ANIMALS 



ment, which cannot be dealt with here. It may, 

 however, be remarked that, as Thompson said, it 

 would follow that we might legitimately proceed to 

 interpret Aristotle's more strictly philosophical work 

 in the light of his work in natural history. But apart 

 from these considerations, the great importance of 

 the zoological works is that they represent the first 

 attempt in Europe to observe and describe in a 

 scientific way the individual living object. 



Throughout the De partibits Aristotle endeavours to Teleology. 

 provide a Final Cause " to explain the facts >vhich 

 he records — some purpose which they are supposed 

 to answer ; and Causes of this sort are by far the 

 most common in his treatise. His outlook is there- 

 fore justly described as " teleological " ; but it is 

 important not to read too much into this description. 

 Aristotle is never tired of telling us that Nature makes 

 nothing and does nothing " without a purpose " ; 

 but if we ask >vhat that purpose is we may find that 

 the answer is not quite what we had expected. 

 Plato's notion of the " form " tended to divert his 

 attention from individuals through a hierarchy of 

 successive " forms " ; but for Aristotle " form " is 

 not independent of matter : form must be embodied 

 in some matter, that is, in individuals. Thus we find 

 all through that Aristotle cannot long keep his eyes 

 from the individual wherein the form is actually 

 embodied, because it, after all, is the End, the 

 crowning achievement of the efforts of the four 

 Causes. This outlook controls the arrangement of 

 Aristotle's treatise. Since all processes of production 

 are determined by the nature of the product Λvhich 

 is to result from them, it is the fully developed product 

 which we must first make it our business to observe, 



" The four Causes are dealt with in a separate note, p. 24. 



11 



