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Causes and Kinds in Aristotle's Embryology by Jessica Louise

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Causes and Kinds in Aristotle's Embryology by Jessica Louise Causes and Kinds in Aristotle’s Embryology By Jessica Louise Gelber A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Philosophy in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in charge: Professor Alan D. Code, Chair Professor John G. MacFarlane Professor Anthony A. Long Spring 2010 Copyright @ Jessica Gelber 2010 Abstract Causes and Kinds in Aristotle’s Embryology by Jessica Louise Gelber Doctor of Philosophy in Philosophy University of California, Berkeley Professor Alan D. Code, Chair In comparison with the reductive theories of Aristotle’s predecessors, Aristotle’s ontology is very full. He takes it as an undeniable fact that medium- sized objects of experience really do come to be and perish. Their appearing to do so is not reducible, as the materialists would have it, to changes in position of more basic material particles. Medium-sized objects are “substances.” Living organisms are paradigm instances of Aristotelian substances. Aristotle takes it as a further, undeniable fact that organisms regularly produce other organisms that are the same in kind or species: Human begets human, not dog or fish. These facts are not explicable by the movements of more basic materials, nor are they explained by the relation that material substances stand in to an immaterial, separately existing Platonic Form. Rather, Aristotle explains the regular reproduction of conspecific organisms of the same species in terms of the transmission of form from one generation to the next. A form at the level of the species, present to the matter as an organizing principle, plays an indispensable causal explanatory role. Given this indispensable role for forms in explanations, Aristotle’s confidence in the superiority of his ontology – one that countenances forms in addition to matter that the forms organize – appears warranted. The inclusion of form in his ontology is justified by the explanatory work that forms do. This justification for forms is threatened, however, by the current consensus on Aristotle’s Generation of Animals. Scholars think that the form that is actually used in Aristotle’s scientific explanation of animal reproduction is not the same as the form in his Metaphysics. The dominant reading of Generation of Animals is that it employs a “sub-specific” form, one that varies from one individual to the next. This reading is not only in tension with Aristotle’s Metaphysics, but I argue, internally inconsistent. I argue for an interpretation of the theory of reproduction in Generation of Animals that avoids these problems, by assigning to species form a privileged causal role in generation. 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER ONE: METAPHYSICS AND SCIENCE...................... 1 1. Introduction................................................................................... 1 2. Aristotle’s Materialist Predecessors............................................ 1 3. Aristotle’s Substance Ontology................................................... 3 4. Justification for Forms................................................................. 5 5. Forms in Scientific Practices....................................................... 7 6. Remainder of the Dissertation.................................................... 11 CHAPTER TWO: SEXUAL REPRODUCTION AND PRINCIPLES OF NATURAL SCIENCE.............................................................................. 14 1. Causal Hylomorphism ................................................................ 14 2. Causal Hylomorphism in Generation of Animals........................ 19 3. Agential Synonymy....................................................................... 21 4. Agential Synonymy in Generation of Animals.............................. 24 5. Contact........................................................................................... 28 6. Contact in Generation of Animals.................................................. 34 7. Conclusion..................................................................................... 41 CHAPTER THREE: INHERITED CHARACTERISTICS............. 43 1. Introduction.................................................................................. 43 2. Sub-specific Forms....................................................................... 44 3. Inherited Characteristics are Not Accidental........................... 47 4. Maternal Resemblance and Sub-specific Form...................... 51 5. Wind Eggs..................................................................................... 53 6. The Matter for Change................................................................ 56 7. Potential Movements................................................................... 58 8. The Bad Inference........................................................................ 65 9. Conclusion..................................................................................... 71 CHAPTER FOUR: NATURE’S TOOLS.................................... 73 1. Introduction.................................................................................. 73 2. Movements are Agents................................................................ 74 3. The Relation of Form to Movements....................................... 82 4. The Significance of Tool-Talk.................................................... 84 5. Nature “uses”................................................................................ 89 6. Movements: The energeia of Soul................................................ 93 7. Conclusion..................................................................................... 96 CHAPTER FIVE: SUMMARY .................................................. 98 BIBLIOGRAPHY ................................................................... 101 i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I wish to express my gratitude to the University of California for years of support. In particular, I would like to thank members of the Philosophy Department and the Department of Classics for their generosity, both with their time and with financial assistance. Mark Griffith and John Ferrari in particular deserve my gratitude for their time. Exzellenzcluster TOPOI in Berlin also contributed both funding and a terrific research environment during the last stages of my dissertation, for which I am grateful. My three advisors – Alan Code, John MacFarlane, and Tony Long – deserve special thanks. Each of them taught me by their excellent examples how to think about these issues; none of them ever told me what I should think. I am grateful to them for that. I am indebted to Sean Kelsey for being so willing and able to help me figure out what I was thinking, when I could not tell. Andreas Anagnostopoulos and Michael Caie were particularly skilled at helping me figure how to say what I was thinking, so that other people could understand it. I greatly appreciate their confidence that I had something meaningful to say. I benefited from discussions on particular issues in Aristotle with Kathleen Cook, Vanessa de Harven, Devin Henry, Allan Gotthelf, Joe Karbowski, Jim Lennox, and Joel Yurdin. Fabrizio Cariani and Josh Sheptow helped me get clearer about the broader philosophical issues to which the particular ones were related. Dave Lynaugh’s practical advice about almost everything has been invaluable. Lastly, I am thankful for the encouragement and support of my family and friends, both those who understood what I was doing and those who could not begin to imagine. David Biddle and Chet Perry were an overflowing fountain of inspiration. Thalia Anagnostopoulos, Jack Chang, Amy Courtney, David Hungerford, Aaron Freundschuh, Chris Missiaen, Jessica Moss, Jasper Reid, Laurialan Reitzammer, Kristin Rugroden, Mark Simms and Richard Zach all provided an antidote for the pain of writing of a dissertation on Aristotle: Pleasure. I dedicate this to Louise. ii CHAPTER ONE METAPHYSICS AND NATURAL SCIENCE 1. Introduction This dissertation argues that the concept of form that Aristotle employs in his biological account of animal reproduction is precisely that form he discusses in the Metaphysics. As traditionally understood, form in the Metaphysics is identified with essence, and shared by members of a species. It is this common, species-level form that I argue is employed in Generation of Animals. In this first chapter, I explain why that view is worth defending. The commonly received view about the concept of form employed in Aristotle’s account of reproduction in Generation of Animals is that it cannot be the same as that found in the Metaphysics, at least as traditionally understood. If that is right, this seriously weakens a plausible justification for positing forms at all. In the remainder of my dissertation I show how, precisely, form shared by members of a species is given a privileged causal role in Aristotle account of animal reproduction. 2. Aristotle’s Materialist Predecessors Compare Aristotle’s ontological picture with two forms of materialism. According to Democritean atomism, all that exists are atoms and the void. Atoms are the eternal, indivisible, imperceptible building blocks of the universe, having no intrinsic properties save size and shape. There are an unlimited number of atoms, coming in unlimited numbers of shapes. These atoms, moving in the void, combine and separate to form the sensible objects of experience, but do not undergo any qualitative change. All changes in the compounds of those atoms that we perceive, including
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