Question

What was the ancient view of the world and animals? Give an example using Aristotle’s interpretation

Answer 1

Aristotle gave his view in his book on the science of the ancient world and animals. He said that the world is formed by the blueprints fixed in the mind of God. For ancient animals, he said, the kind of animal with feathers, beak, wings, warm blood, and a hard-shelled egg is called a bird.

Answer 2

800 million years ago, the first animal life began on Earth. And discussions were seen between different scientists based on the relationship between animals and humans. As per Aristotle (Father of Biology), humans were different from that of the animals. He stated that humans share all the characters which manifest themselves in different types of soul that the animal possess, with addition to a rational soul which was exclusively found only in humans. As per Aristotle there were three different types of soul, those were:-

1. Nutritive
2. Appetitive
3. Rational

The first two soul were found in every living organisms including the plants. But the last one, the rational soul was unique to Humans as per Aristotle.

According to Aristotle, the ancient world looked in a manner that the Earth was the located at the center of the Universe. And all other celestial bodies rotated around the Earth. The Earth was termed to be stationary. And it was assumed that in sub lunar region, there were four basic elements- earth, air , fire and water . And all of these elements had an unique essential property based on their movement. Where, the Earth moved towards the centre of the Universe. The water too moved towards the centre of the universe but not in a degree of which the earth moved. The air moved above the Earth and the water. And the fire moved away from the centre of universe. It was also said that the heaven was made up of a weightless substance that was called as to be 'aether'.