Questions concerning Aristotle's On Animals (The Fathers of the Church, Mediaeval Continuation, Volume 9): Mediaeval Continuation, Volume 9)

Book One

13 Here begin the questions on the books On Animals. BOOK ONE Question 1: Whether this book has animals for its subject. IRST ONE ASKS whether this book has animals for its subject. 1. It seems not, because every science has to do with things that are universal and incorruptible, but every animal is individual and corruptible, and therefore, etc. 2. Moreover, if it were about animals, then it would concern either some or all animals. But it is not more about some than others, and it would therefore be about them all. But this is impossible , since then it would seem to be infinite and the infinite cannot be known by humans. 3. Besides, an animal is composed of body and soul. Therefore any treatment of animals can be threefold: either in terms of the soul, in terms of the body, or in terms of the soul as it is related to the body. But the soul is treated in the book On the Soul. Moreover, the body is sufficiently treated in the book, the Physics, and in other subordinate sciences like medicine. But the soul as related to the body is adequately treated in our small books on natural matters [Parva naturalia]. If this book, then, were about animals it would be fruitless and superfluous, because the whole subject of what is in the animal is treated elsewhere , as has been proven. Therefore, etc. But the opposite is made clear by how the Philosopher decided his subject matter1 and the title of the book.2 1. Latin: determinatio. The root of this word is terminus, and thus it suggests a boundary. 2. Ar., HA 1.1 (486a5). 14 ALBERT THE GREAT To this one must say that this book can be said to be about animals because it primarily concerns the animated, movable body as applied to individual species of animals. This is so because such a study [scientia] is related to science [scientia] in the same way a specific subject is related to a [broader] subject. But this study is part of natural science and its subject will therefore be part of the broader subject. But the broader subject is that of the movable body. Therefore, the subject of this study is a specific , movable body. Thus one must understand that “everything is intelligible to the extent that it is separable from matter.”3 But since sciences are a characteristic [habitus] of the intellect, they have to be distinguished with respect to their objects, and this is why, to the extent that something is separated from its matter in diverse ways, it is naturally destined to pertain to a different science. For this reason, because some things are separated from matter with respect to their being [esse] and definition [ratio], like metaphysical objects, and some are separated with respect to their definition but not their being, like mathematical objects, and some, like natural objects, are separated from matter neither with respect to their being nor their definition, and are not separated in general but only in particular, then these sciences are essentially different—metaphysics, which concerns the first sort of being, and mathematics, which is about the second, and physics, which is about the third.4 And likewise, within the same science the parts are distinguished with respect to a greater or lesser degree of separation from matter. And since that which is more universal is further abstracted from matter, it therefore belongs to a different part of science to make a determination about the subject in general and in particular. This is why the book on Physics,5 in which a determination is made about movable body in general, and the book On Heaven [and Earth],6 in which a determination is made about movable body restricted in terms of place [contracto ad ubi], concern one part of natural science, and consideration of 3. Ar., De anima 3.4 (429b21–22); cf. A., De anima 3.2.16, 3.3.1. 4. See A., Metaph., 1.1.1. 5. See A., Phys., 1.1.4. 6. See A., DCM 1.1.1; DG 1.1.1. BOOK ONE 15 a movable body defined by being animated, consequently, belongs to another part. And because consideration of the soul or of the ensouled is threefold: one way, considered absolutely, and another way as it is formed in the body or parts of the body, and this...