Aristotle,
On the Vital Principle — Introduction
(1855)
“ But whether Aristotle's mode of inquiry was or not faulty, and whether the principle which animates the world (it may be the universe) is or not among those causes which are inscrutable, it will be ever a topic of deep interest to the learned and the thoughtful of every age. ”
Aristotle,
On the Vital Principle — Introduction
(1855)
“ But, although life may appear compounded in its effects in a complicated animal like man, it is as simple in him as in the most simple animal, and is reducible to one simple property in every animal." In another paragraph, he adds, "the first and most simple idea of life is its being the principle of self-preservation, by its preventing matter from falling into dissolution—for dissolution immediately takes place when matter is deprived of it; the second is its being the principle of action. These are two very different properties, though they arise from the same principle." ”
Aristotle,
On the Vital Principle — Introduction
(1855)
“ But whether we examine a seed before development, or watch the rudimental forms of life, that something lies shrouded in matter which, although to appearance inanimate, is yet, through its influence, under genial conditions, capable of developing into a perfect being; and of resisting, for a stated time, the agency of surrounding elements. Thus, growth and development with their antagonisms absorption and decay, effected through the actions of the material framework of living beings, constitute, essentially, life ”
