CONTENT - International Society of Zoological Sciences

Aristotle founder of Zoology: when art imitates nature
Rosa-Maria Polymeni
National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Faculty of Biology,
Department of Botany, Panepistimioupolis, Athens 157 84, Greece
Aristotle, one of the biggest philosophers and scientists of the Greek
Classical era is the founder of Zoology. Furthermore his versatile
genius together with his voluminous works on natural history allows
considering him as co-founder, with Theophrastus, of biology.
Aristotle had a penetrating and in the same time broad mind
combined with an empirical manner of study. It is likely that about
400 works are attributed to him. Greeks in classical years, never
dispute the primacy of nature compared to the human creations: […]
if natural products could also be produced by art, they would move
along the same line that the natural process actually takes […].
Indeed, as a general proposition, the arts either on the basis of
nature, carry things further than nature can, or they imitate nature
(Aristotle, On Nature 199a). Descriptions of numerous creatures
given by Aristotle in detail include information on the colours. In the
work “On colors” that is thought to be written by his pupil and
colleague Theophrastus, Aristotle rejects the active projection of
visual rays by the eye. The real object of vision is color, which is a
property of the surface of things. Such old but advanced ideas could
be proved and be usable only in our days using new technological
tools. In the frame of this approach, we studied the microsculpture of
the skin surface of salamanders of Greece; it seems likely that colour
reflects the state of surface and it depends on a relationship between
light and the corporeal quality of the matter.
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ICZ2008 - Abstracts
Aristotle and Theophrastus founders of the Lyceum: when art
imitates nature
Sophia Rhizopoulou
National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Faculty of Biology,
Department of Botany, Panepistimioupolis, Athens 157 84, Greece
Aristotle's successor as head of the Lyceum at Athens was
Theophrastus (371–286 BC), a Greek Peripatetic philosopher and
pupil of Aristotle; he studied at Athens under Aristotle, and when
Aristotle was forced to retire in 323 BC he became the head, in the
academy in Athens founded by Aristotle. Under Theophrastus the
enrolment of pupils and auditors rose to its highest point; also, he
was responsible for the first botanical garden. Evidently, among
other issues, colour has attracted their interest and attention. Ideas
of early thinkers were not -and could not have been- grasped on a
scientific level without knowledge of a kind that lay far in the future.
Colour on the surfaces of living tissues could hardly have been
visualized without a corresponding reference to the microscale
parallel. Millions of years before man made manipulated synthetic
structures, biological systems were using forms at the nanoscale
level to produce striking optical effects; according to Theophrastus
art imitates nature (the Causes of Plants II.18.2). We studied the
microsculpture of floral surfaces and pollen grains –from plants
grown in the Mediterranean Basin and referred by Theophrastus in
his classical texts (Enquiry of the plants and the Causes of plants)–
by using advanced microscopic techniques; to the best of our
knowledge imaging of petals has not been reported hitherto. Our
findings on microsculpture may be linked with aspects on colour
revealed from ancient literature; likewise, visual perception of living
tissues reminds us of classical fragments.