Research: Aristotle's Criticism of Democritus: The Biological Works and De AnimaAristotle's habit of discussing and analysing the opinions of his predecessors is a well-known practice in his treatises, particularly in those passages commonly called 'dialectical'. One of the most frequently mentioned predecessors is Democritus: the atomist is a prominent interlocutor especially in the biological writings and the De anima. The aim of this research is to investigate Aristotle's interpretation of Democritus on issues concerning the nature of living beings and their natural processes, such as questions of embryology and psychology. How does Aristotle interpret the atomist's position? What arguments does he present and how does he develop his criticism of Democritus? What are the fundamental conceptions that lead to such criticism and the crucial points of the debate? Through a philological, logical-argumentative and historical-philosophical analysis of the passages in which Aristotle refers to atomistic theories, I intend to tackle these questions and study Aristotle's understanding of the Democritean Atomism.
keywords
Aristotle, Democritus, Biology, Atomism, Soul, Doxography