Wacek, (01)
> Some progress has been made, though. Aristotle claimed
> -- according to Russell, as far as I know -- that women
> have fewer teeth than men. (02)
Following is a review of a book about Aristotle's comments
on women (or females of any species): (03)
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/bmcr/2004/2004-09-19.html
Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2004.09.19 (04)
I would guess that he actually did the test, but the man he
examined happened to have fully developed wisdom teeth, but
the woman didn't. (05)
You can find lots of very good examples as well as those
"howlers" in Aristotle's writings. Among the better ones
is his conclusion that sponges are animals, not plants. (06)
An excellent example of experimental method is his study of
embryos -- by starting with 30 chicken eggs, breaking open
one each day, and describing how the embryo develops. (07)
In any case, the primary role of philosophy is not to
accumulate facts and theories, as in science, but to develop
methods of conceptual analysis. For that purpose, it's hard
to find more instructive examples than the writings of Plato
and Aristotle. (08)
But the distinction between philosophy and the empirical sciences
wasn't clearly distinguished until the 19th century. Even Kant had
lectured on Newtonian mechanics, and one of Kant's contributions
was the hypothesis that the planets developed from a cloud of dust
around the sun. (09)
John (010)
_________________________________________________________________
Message Archives: http://ontolog.cim3.net/forum/ontolog-forum/
Subscribe/Config: http://ontolog.cim3.net/mailman/listinfo/ontolog-forum/
Unsubscribe: mailto:ontolog-forum-leave@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Shared Files: http://ontolog.cim3.net/file/
Community Wiki: http://ontolog.cim3.net/wiki/
To Post: mailto:ontolog-forum@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (011)
|