On Youth, Old Age, Life and Death, and Respiration
Encyclopedia
On Youth, Old Age, Life and Death, and Respiration (Greek
: ) is one of the short treatises that make up Aristotle
's Parva Naturalia
.
.
edition of Aristotle's works
distinguished two works, De Senectute et Juventute (chapters 1-6), and De Respiratione (chapters 7-27, for this reason sometimes cited as De Respiratione, chapters 1-21). However, the manuscripts give no basis for this distinction, and the contents are not accurately described by these labels; youth and old age only come into focus as "part of the explanation of life as a whole" in chapter 24. The work may, instead, be considered as a single, unified treatise on life, death, and the functions necessary to life: nutrition and respiration. The title On Youth, Old Age, Life and Death, and Respiration, given in the Medieval manuscripts, derives from the treatise's opening words: "We must now treat of youth and old age and life and death. We must probably also at the same time state the causes of respiration as well, since in some cases living and the reverse depend on this." This statement explains how respiration is part of the more general subject of life and death. While De Vita et Morte might, then, seem to be a more satisfactory title for the work (and Ptolemy Chennus refers to the whole in this way), youth and old age are important aspects of the subject, because Aristotle's conception "is not of a constant, unvarying life" but of a life-cycle of natural development and decay.
is the primary organ of soul, and the central organ of nutrition and sensation (with which the organs of the five sense
s communicate). The motivation for this "disappointing feature of Aristotle's physiology" is a matter of conjecture; the importance of the brain
had been suggested before Aristotle by Alcmaeon of Croton
(on the basis of "the fact...that the end-organs of smell and sight are connected with the brain," with which Aristotle was familiar), and this had been accepted in turn by Diogenes of Apollonia, Democritus
, and Plato
.
. Among other debts, "his comparison of the heart-lung system to a double bellows
(ch. 26, 480a20-23) is clearly borrowed from the earlier treatise" On Regimen (De Victu). That is, the heart ("hot substance" in animals) is inside the lung
s ("the primary organ of cooling," a function also served by gill
s); the heart expands under the influence of heat, forcing the lungs to expand under the same influence, causing inhalation
, and this introduction of cold air from outside in turn causes contraction and exhalation
. In this continuous process, "life and respiration are inseparable."
Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek is the stage of the Greek language in the periods spanning the times c. 9th–6th centuries BC, , c. 5th–4th centuries BC , and the c. 3rd century BC – 6th century AD of ancient Greece and the ancient world; being predated in the 2nd millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek...
: ) is one of the short treatises that make up Aristotle
Aristotle
Aristotle was a Greek philosopher and polymath, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. His writings cover many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, linguistics, politics, government, ethics, biology, and zoology...
's Parva Naturalia
Parva Naturalia
The Parva Naturalia are a collection of seven works by Aristotle, which discuss natural phenomena involving the body and the soul:* Sense and Sensibilia * On Memory...
.
Place in the Parva Naturalia
In comparison to the first five treatises of the Parva Naturalia, this one and On Length and Shortness of Life, while still dealing with natural phenomena involving the body and the soul, are "definitely biological rather than psychological." They are omitted from the Parva Naturalia commentary of SophoniasSophonias (commentator)
Sophonias was a Byzantine monk who wrote commentaries or paraphrases of the works of Aristotle including De Anima, Sophistici Elenchi, Prior Analytics, and the Parva Naturalia, which are still extant....
.
Title and divisions of the treatise
Modern editions divide the treatise into 27 chapters. The BekkerAugust Immanuel Bekker
August Immanuel Bekker was a German philologist and critic.-Biography:Born in Berlin, Bekker completed his classical education at the University of Halle under Friedrich August Wolf, who considered him as his most promising pupil. In 1810 he was appointed professor of philosophy in the University...
edition of Aristotle's works
Corpus Aristotelicum
The Corpus Aristotelicum is the collection of Aristotle's works that have survived from antiquity through Medieval manuscript transmission. These texts, as opposed to Aristotle's lost works, are technical philosophical treatises from within Aristotle's school...
distinguished two works, De Senectute et Juventute (chapters 1-6), and De Respiratione (chapters 7-27, for this reason sometimes cited as De Respiratione, chapters 1-21). However, the manuscripts give no basis for this distinction, and the contents are not accurately described by these labels; youth and old age only come into focus as "part of the explanation of life as a whole" in chapter 24. The work may, instead, be considered as a single, unified treatise on life, death, and the functions necessary to life: nutrition and respiration. The title On Youth, Old Age, Life and Death, and Respiration, given in the Medieval manuscripts, derives from the treatise's opening words: "We must now treat of youth and old age and life and death. We must probably also at the same time state the causes of respiration as well, since in some cases living and the reverse depend on this." This statement explains how respiration is part of the more general subject of life and death. While De Vita et Morte might, then, seem to be a more satisfactory title for the work (and Ptolemy Chennus refers to the whole in this way), youth and old age are important aspects of the subject, because Aristotle's conception "is not of a constant, unvarying life" but of a life-cycle of natural development and decay.
The heart as the primary organ of soul
Aristotle begins by raising the question of the seat of life in the body ("while it is clear that [the soul's] essential reality cannot be corporeal, yet manifestly it must exist in some bodily part which must be one of those possessing control over the members") and arrives at the answer that the heartHeart
The heart is a myogenic muscular organ found in all animals with a circulatory system , that is responsible for pumping blood throughout the blood vessels by repeated, rhythmic contractions...
is the primary organ of soul, and the central organ of nutrition and sensation (with which the organs of the five sense
Sense
Senses are physiological capacities of organisms that provide inputs for perception. The senses and their operation, classification, and theory are overlapping topics studied by a variety of fields, most notably neuroscience, cognitive psychology , and philosophy of perception...
s communicate). The motivation for this "disappointing feature of Aristotle's physiology" is a matter of conjecture; the importance of the brain
Brain
The brain is the center of the nervous system in all vertebrate and most invertebrate animals—only a few primitive invertebrates such as sponges, jellyfish, sea squirts and starfishes do not have one. It is located in the head, usually close to primary sensory apparatus such as vision, hearing,...
had been suggested before Aristotle by Alcmaeon of Croton
Alcmaeon of Croton
Alcmaeon of Croton was one of the most eminent natural philosophers and medical theorists of antiquity. His father's name was Peirithus . He is said by some to have been a pupil of Pythagoras, and he may have been born around 510 BC...
(on the basis of "the fact...that the end-organs of smell and sight are connected with the brain," with which Aristotle was familiar), and this had been accepted in turn by Diogenes of Apollonia, Democritus
Democritus
Democritus was an Ancient Greek philosopher born in Abdera, Thrace, Greece. He was an influential pre-Socratic philosopher and pupil of Leucippus, who formulated an atomic theory for the cosmos....
, and Plato
Plato
Plato , was a Classical Greek philosopher, mathematician, student of Socrates, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world. Along with his mentor, Socrates, and his student, Aristotle, Plato helped to lay the...
.
Heart, lungs, and respiration
Aristotle's account of the heart provides one of the clearest indications that he was familiar with the medical theories of some parts of the Hippocratic CorpusHippocratic Corpus
The Hippocratic Corpus , or Hippocratic Collection, is a collection of around 60 early Ancient Greek medical works strongly associated with the physician Hippocrates and his teachings...
. Among other debts, "his comparison of the heart-lung system to a double bellows
Bellows
A bellows is a device for delivering pressurized air in a controlled quantity to a controlled location.Basically, a bellows is a deformable container which has an outlet nozzle. When the volume of the bellows is decreased, the air escapes through the outlet...
(ch. 26, 480a20-23) is clearly borrowed from the earlier treatise" On Regimen (De Victu). That is, the heart ("hot substance" in animals) is inside the lung
Lung
The lung is the essential respiration organ in many air-breathing animals, including most tetrapods, a few fish and a few snails. In mammals and the more complex life forms, the two lungs are located near the backbone on either side of the heart...
s ("the primary organ of cooling," a function also served by gill
Gill
A gill is a respiratory organ found in many aquatic organisms that extracts dissolved oxygen from water, afterward excreting carbon dioxide. The gills of some species such as hermit crabs have adapted to allow respiration on land provided they are kept moist...
s); the heart expands under the influence of heat, forcing the lungs to expand under the same influence, causing inhalation
Inhalation
Inhalation is the movement of air from the external environment, through the air ways, and into the alveoli....
, and this introduction of cold air from outside in turn causes contraction and exhalation
Exhalation
Exhalation is the movement of air out of the bronchial tubes, through the airways, to the external environment during breathing....
. In this continuous process, "life and respiration are inseparable."
The life-cycle
Chapter 24 of the treatise gives several definitions that summarize Aristotle's theory.| generation (birth) | the initial participation in the nutritive soul, mediated by warm substance (i.e., in animals, the heart, in which the nutritive soul is incorporated) |
| life | the maintenance of this participation |
| youth | the period of the growth of the primary organ of refrigeration (the lungs) |
| the prime of life | the intervening time between the growth and decay of the primary organ of refrigeration |
| old age | the decay of the primary organ of refrigeration |
| violent death or dissolution | the extinction or exhaustion of the vital heat Vital heat Vital heat, also called innate or natural heat, or calidum innatum, is a term that has generally referred to the heat produced within the body, usually the heat produced by the heart and the circulatory system.... |
| natural death | the exhaustion of the heat owing to lapse of time, and occurring at the end of life |
| death, in old age | the exhaustion due to inability on the part of the organ, owing to old age, to produce refrigeration |
Commentaries
- Michael of EphesusMichael of EphesusMichael of Ephesus or Michael Ephesius wrote important commentaries on Aristotle, including the first full commentary on the Sophistical Refutations, which established the regular study of that text.-Life:...
, CAGCommentaria in Aristotelem GraecaCommentaria in Aristotelem Graeca [edita consilio et auctoritate academiae litterarum Regiae Borussicae] ' is the standard collection of extant ancient Greek commentaries on Aristotle. The 23 volumes in the series were released between the years 1882 and 1909 by the publisher Reimer...
XXII.1 (Greek text) - W. D. RossW. D. RossSir David Ross KBE was a Scottish philosopher, known for work in ethics. His best known work is The Right and the Good , and he is perhaps best known for developing a pluralist, deontological form of intuitionist ethics in response to G.E. Moore's intuitionism...
, Aristotle: Parva Naturalia, Oxford, 1955
External links
- Ancient Greek text (with translation and notes in Modern Greek)
- English translation by G.R.T. Ross: University of Adelaide eBooks (HTML), MIT Classics Archive (HTML), Archive.org (scan of published version, with Bekker numbers and notes, beginning on p. 406 of the PDF file)