
Aristotle on Inquiry
Erotetic Frameworks and Domain-Specific Norms
James G. Lennox(Author)
Cambridge University Press
Published on 20. May 2021
Book
Hardback
338 pages
978-0-521-19397-9 (ISBN)
Description
Aristotle is a rarity in the history of philosophy and science - he is a towering figure in the history of both disciplines. Moreover, he devoted a great deal of philosophical attention to the nature of scientific knowledge. How then do his philosophical reflections on scientific knowledge impact his actual scientific inquiries? In this book James Lennox sets out to answer this question. He argues that Aristotle has a richly normative view of scientific inquiry, and that those norms are of two kinds: a general, question-guided framework applicable to all scientific inquiries, and domain-specific norms reflecting differences in the target of inquiry and in the means of observation available to researchers. To see these norms of inquiry in action, the second half of this book examines Aristotle's investigations of animals, the soul, material compounds, the motions of heavenly bodies, and respiration.
Reviews / Votes
'Aristotle's methodology of discovery is as full of genius and sophistication as his extraordinary discoveries themselves. No one interested should miss this major study by a leading expert.' Sarah Broadie, Bishop Wardlaw Professor of Philosophy, University of St AndrewsMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
Cambridge
United Kingdom
Illustrations
Worked examples or Exercises
Dimensions
Height: 235 mm
Width: 157 mm
Thickness: 23 mm
Weight
641 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-521-19397-9 (9780521193979)
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Schweitzer Classification
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Book
04/2023
Cambridge University Press
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E-Book
05/2021
Cambridge University Press
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E-Book
05/2021
Cambridge University Press
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Person
James G. Lennox is Professor Emeritus of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Pittsburgh. He has published widely on the history and philosophy of biology, with a focus on Aristotle, William Harvey, Charles Darwin and Darwinism. His books include Aristotle's Philosophy of Biology (Cambridge, 2001) and a translation, with commentary, of Aristotle: On the Parts of Animals (2001) in the Clarendon Aristotle Series.
Content
Introduction; I. Erotetic Frameworks and Domain Specific Norms: 1. The Goal of Knowledge and Norms of Inquiry; 2. An Erotetic Framework: The Posterior Analytics on Inquiry; 3. A Discourse on ???????; 4. Natural Science: Many Inquiries, One Science; II. Natural Inquiries: Autonomy and Integration: 5. The ??????? of Nature; 6. The ??????? of Animals; 7. The Soul: One Subject, Many Methods?; 8. The Order of Inquiry I: Right and Left in Cosmology and Zoology; 9. The Order of Inquiry II: The Debt of Aristotle's Zoology to Meteorology IV; 10. Framework Norms meet Domain Specific Norms: Aristotle on Respiration.