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1.4. Orígenes. Las enciclopedias: Aristóteles y Plinio.
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1.4. Orígenes. Las enciclopedias: Aristóteles y Plinio.

The Development of Encyclopedias in Antiquity

This section discusses the development of encyclopedias in Antiquity, specifically by the Greeks and Romans. Aristotle's approach to knowledge is also discussed.

The Importance of Encyclopedias

  • Encyclopedias were important tools for transmitting scientific knowledge in Antiquity.
  • Both the Greeks and Romans aimed to organize and order all the knowledge they had accumulated over centuries.
  • Aristotle designed a more analytical and orderly system for organizing all phenomena affecting life, particularly zoology.

Aristotle's Approach to Knowledge

  • Aristotle rejected Platonism and created a way to approach knowledge entirely from direct sense perception of phenomena.
  • For Aristotle, nothing can be understood without a teleological perspective; nature must always have meaning and pursue an end.
  • Form was always determined by function and anatomy, making anatomical study essential for understanding animal features.
  • Aristotle developed a method that went from inductivism to deductivism but was highly charged with theoretical speculation.

Aristotle's Zoological Work

This section focuses on Aristotle's zoological work, including his research program, observations, dissections, and classification system.

Research Program

  • Aristotle designed a research program that made it possible to construct a whole range of causal and genetic theories.
  • He carried out very detailed observations as well as dissections with the collaboration of many people.
  • He got information from traveling sailors and had a large group of people who helped him in all these experiences.

Classification System

  • Aristotle tried to order the entire animal kingdom by a series of differences that he observed.
  • He created a dichotomous key of genus and species, which was quite different from what we know today.
  • He managed to study about 500 animal species through comparing their anatomy and physiology.

Aristotle's Contributions

This section discusses Aristotle's contributions to knowledge, including his unified approach to natural history and the Scala Naturae.

Unified Approach to Natural History

  • Aristotle's zoological work is immense, extremely voluminous, and with a unified approach to an entire series of aspects such as natural history, motion, offspring, everything related to animal life.
  • He studied their ways of life, habits and structures in great detail.

Scala Naturae

  • Aristotle created the idea of the Scala Naturae or scale of nature for the first time.
  • According to this idea, animals are organized from the simplest organisms on the lowest part of the ladder to humans on the highest part.

Roman Encyclopedias

This section focuses on Roman encyclopedias and how they differed from Aristotle's model.

Types of Encyclopedias

  • The Romans created other types of encyclopedias more focused on their usefulness for teaching liberal arts such as grammar, dialectics, rhetoric, geometry, arithmetic astronomy and music.
  • They incorporated new disciplines that they thought could be of general interest for their readers such as medicine and architecture.

Pliny's 'Naturalis Historia'

  • Pliny the Elder's 'Naturalis Historia' was the key encyclopedia of the Roman world and the entire ancient world.
  • It is a very different encyclopedia from Aristotle's model, lacking direct personal observations and clear comparative approach.
  • However, Pliny contributed an entire series of new information for the great expansion of the Roman Empire which allowed them to gain knowledge about many other animals.

Conclusion

This section concludes by summarizing how encyclopedias were developed in Antiquity and their contributions to knowledge.

Contributions to Knowledge

  • Encyclopedias brought about a limited advance of knowledge without the inductive approach that Aristotle's encyclopedia had.
  • In botany, it ended up becoming a terminological index more than anything else, focusing on practical interest such as medicinal uses.
  • Nevertheless, Pliny's 'Naturalis Historia' is one of the most successful books in history.
Video description

Autor: Ferragud, Carmel; Serie: MOOC Historia de la Ciencia Data: 2017 Resum: Griegos y romanos sintieron la necesidad de poner orden a todo el conocimiento que iban adquiriendo. Aristóteles y su escuela se distinguieron por el intento de analizar y ordenar todos los fenómenos de la vida humana y de la naturaleza desde puntos de vista unitarios. No fue extraño a la ciencia griega la existencia de programas de investigación para resolver problemas extremadamente específicos. Pero el primero de estos proyectos destinado a la investigación empírica en las ciencias de la naturaleza, por las explicaciones causales que puede aportar, lo debemos a Aristóteles. Música: Good mood song by Jerry Sterling; Producció: Servei de Formació Permanent i Innovació Educativa (http://www.uv.es/sfpie)