Merely Living Animals in Aristotle

Abstract

In Parts of Animals II.10, 655b37-656a8, Aristotle tacitly identifies a group of animals which partake of “living only”. This paper is an attempt to understand the nature of this group. It is argued that it is possible to make sense of this designation (i.e. “merely living animals”) if we consider that some animals, which are solely endowed with the contact senses, do nothing more than mere immediate nutrition by their perceptive nature and have no other action. It is concluded that some of Aristotle’s merely living animals would be certain kinds of sponge, certain sea anemones and the ascidians among testacea

Keywords

• Ancient Philosophy
• Aristotle
• biology
• life