The Lagoon: How Aristotle Invented Science

It gradually dawned on me that the author is, himself, quite brilliant. This descriptive is merited by the mountain of research he has done and the endless series of carefully-wrought insights with which he has suffused this book.He even constructs feedback loops using Aristotelian elements and homeostatic laws to give the ancient philosopher, no the ancient SCIENTIST, full dignity and respect. The appendices of this book are gloriously fascinating.The author uses a sly wit to lighten the load as the biological inventory sometimes rains-down, as it must, for the implications of Aristotle's vast work to be made plain to the reader. Once Aristotle's biology is fully-rendered, it is then compared with the assumptions and methods of modern science, and, of course, its theories, the most notable of which being Darwin's on evolution.This book is a masterpiece. I am not an educated person, I have a more than full-time job and a family, so this book took me a couple of months to work-through, marking pencil in-hand and dictionary at my elbow. Every minute of it was recreation of the most pleasurable kind.

To me this book is a revelation. Aristotle is known to many scientists as the great originator of observation. But he was never a living person to me before reading this book. Mr. Leroi brings us to Aristotle's hunting grounds, and connects us with his life and and his travails. If you never cared why an environment could be inspiring both as natural history and as a cultural setting, you will from this book. You will think less of Plato and much much more of Aristotle after reading this fascinating exploration of what it means to learn by observation and thinking combined. Most of all, you will DESPERATELY want to visit Greece and settle in with the mussels and cuttlefish. A magical book.

Just enough information to get one started in Aristotle's pale ontological studies. Descriptions of places is sometime annoying. There is no study that I am aware of that puts Aristotle's studies in one book. This is a start.

I'm going through this very slowly, and enjoying each chapter on its own. There are some texts that benefit from taking a break, thinking it over, and coming back after doing something else. This is one of those.

A great book which was delivered on time as it was promised.

Missing dust jacket and general condition of volume not well mapped to the price paid.

Dr. Leroi did a nice job of presenting Aristotle as a living thinker. Very impression style.

Great book, well researched.

In attesa di una traduzione (magari!) il libro, favorevolmente recensito dal NYT, segna il ritorno di un biologo nel campo di studi aristotelici, all'interno di una tendenza, simboleggiata dalla Nussbaum, che vede il filosofo uscire dai ristretti campi della filologia classica. Certo questo comporta qualche limite nel libro, poco accurato nel citare (si mettono le indicazioni dei passi citati!), ricco di notazioni personali ed aneddotiche, e con pittoresche ricostruzioni di come sarebbero apparsi papiri aristotelici di storia naturale. Ma al di là di una certa dispersività, il libro ha il grande merito di sottolineare la centralità della biologia nel pensiero di Aristotele, sottolineando la sua attenzione al mondo reale di contro a Platone; inoltre rivela che lo stagirita aveva creato se non la scienza moderna, almeno un metodo scientifico suo; infine il confronto con la scienza classica si rivela ancora fecondo per quella moderna se non nei risultati, almeno nei metodi e nelle ispirazioni; dal libro emerge tra le righe una spiccata somiglianza con Darwin.Da ultimo il libro, scritto con scioltezza, è allegramente antiplatonico: già questo lo consiglia.