Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
symmetrical, their relationship only being governed by a principle of
quantitative dominance. For Aristotle this is no longer the case.
Because the female seed is less elaborate, it does not contribute in the
same way as the male seed: the latter “
…contributes the principle of
movement and the female the material”
(GA p. 86). We thus find
here the general principles of his hylemorphic ontology applied to
biology. On the one hand, there is the female material intrinsically
undetermined and incapable of organising itself, while on the other,
the male sperm provides the principle of organisation, the form,
which structures it.
43
The resemblance between generations does not, in this con-
cept, arise from reproduction of the whole material body itself,
as Hippocrates believed, but from transmission of the formal
cause that Aristotle calls the 'soul' of living beings. There is a
break in the material continuity of the body which must be
completely reconstructed for each generation by the female
seminal matter being given structure by the Form. What is
perpetuated is not the body itself, but the Form, which allows
reproduction of the same structure and engenders the species
by identical individuals succeeding each other. Adult living
beings do not directly reproduce one from another (Fig. 32).
There is also a model of ontogenesis corresponding to this the-
ory of generation which postulates a hierarchical organisation of liv-
ing things with increasing levels of complexity (Fig. 11B). This
model is described in another of Aristotle's biological treatises
called
Parts of Animals
. In the beginning, there is “
composition out
of the Elements
” (PA 646a) which are moistness, dryness, heat and
cold. Their combination forms the four basic elements: earth, air,
fire and water, that are mixed in turn in various proportions to pro-
duce the homeomeric parts such as bone, flesh and other tissues.
Association of these tissues finally gives rise to the anomeomere
parts such as the head, the hands or the feet. For Aristotle, this
ontogenesis is guided by the formal cause which determines the
43
This sexist theory registers, in addition, in the etymology of the terms that
we use, since 'material' and 'maternal' have the same root.
