Form, Reproduction, and Inherited Characteristics in Aristotle's Generation of Animals

Abstract

In this paper I discuss a problem of interpretation in the Generation of Animals (abbreviated G.A.), and propose a resolution of it. The difficulty is how to understand Aristotle's explanation of inherited resemblances, which seems to suggest a surprising notion of form at work in reproduction.' Although there is a wide variety of possible views on Aristotelian form, one point of almost universal agreement is that the form or essence2 does not include accidental, material features of the object.3 According to David Balme's interpretation of Aristotle's account of inherited likenesses, however, the form transmitted in reproduction does includes such features. Balme's interpretation of form has serious implications for our understanding not only of the biological writings but of other texts as well in particular the Metaphysics. It is possible, of course, to avoid these implications by reading Aristotle's biological works totally independently of his metaphysical writings and vice versa. In this paper I shall consider it desirable to find, at minimum, a consistent account of form in both contexts.4