Quite wonderful - and unbelievable - a tv programme about Aristotle's science. It had everything one could possibly want - lovely settings, food markets, agreeable discussions about wildlife, amazing shots of chameleons and macaques... and information about something new. A tv programme which one actually learned something from.
The basic thesis of the programme was what a great scientist Aristotle had been, and how had he spent two years by a lagoon in Lesbos researching animal life. He had begun to understand a great deal, including things that were not improved upon until the 19thC,. He had begun to realise some things about inheritance, but he wasn't great on experimenting as a result of this he believed that maggots were spontaneously generated from dead meat - and indeed, that many other creatures were spontaneously generated too. I suppose this is where the idea that barnacle geese were spontaneously generated from barnacles (I've never understood how anyone could believe this - even in times of greatest credulity - it flies in the face of other animal behaviour...but I suppose if you think maggots can be spontaneously generated, then anything else that you never see breeding might be too). It filled me with a (probably short-lived) desire to go and read A's Natural History work - I think we have some edited highlights somewhere in Penguin classics.
Now I wish there was going to be a whole series about A's scientific discoveries and how he made them, and whether he really did dissect an elephant. Followed by a series on natural history through history.
One of my longstanding backburner book ideas has involved Aristotle and other early scientists' observations and anecdotes about animals, all laviishly illustrated with pictures from manuscripts and Renaissance printed works... up to, but no further than, Hooke I guess. Would such an object sell? I suppose it depends on how far the public yearn to understand how people thought in the past.... well that would be quite a lot of people I think.
The basic thesis of the programme was what a great scientist Aristotle had been, and how had he spent two years by a lagoon in Lesbos researching animal life. He had begun to understand a great deal, including things that were not improved upon until the 19thC,. He had begun to realise some things about inheritance, but he wasn't great on experimenting as a result of this he believed that maggots were spontaneously generated from dead meat - and indeed, that many other creatures were spontaneously generated too. I suppose this is where the idea that barnacle geese were spontaneously generated from barnacles (I've never understood how anyone could believe this - even in times of greatest credulity - it flies in the face of other animal behaviour...but I suppose if you think maggots can be spontaneously generated, then anything else that you never see breeding might be too). It filled me with a (probably short-lived) desire to go and read A's Natural History work - I think we have some edited highlights somewhere in Penguin classics.
Now I wish there was going to be a whole series about A's scientific discoveries and how he made them, and whether he really did dissect an elephant. Followed by a series on natural history through history.
One of my longstanding backburner book ideas has involved Aristotle and other early scientists' observations and anecdotes about animals, all laviishly illustrated with pictures from manuscripts and Renaissance printed works... up to, but no further than, Hooke I guess. Would such an object sell? I suppose it depends on how far the public yearn to understand how people thought in the past.... well that would be quite a lot of people I think.
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