Aristotle is the most important antique author of this course. Unlike Plato, the most important sciences for Aristotle’s metaphysics were biology and zoology.
The Eidos is the principle of life (of an individual). It is found in all living things and there are as many of them as beings.
Aristotle considered humans as part of animals, he did not separate them, they were on the same level.
There are a lot of psychic, mental capacities that human beings share with animals; first and foremost, the soul.
The soul is often at the same time form and essence for an individual living being. Aristotle’s biological writing is called “on the soul” - it’s a physical thing. What we call biology is psychology for Aristotle. The soul is the principle of the living organism. It is living because it has a soul. And organisms are the objects of inquiry of what is today called biology.
The difference between things and animated things is the presence of a soul in the latter. Soul is the dynamism.
Uexkull
Born in the Baltic states (part of Prussia at the time). Came from a wealthy, aristocratic family. Was interested in Kantian philosophy. Nevertheless started working in Biology, went to study “somewhere in Prussia.” Became a specialist of marine organisms; he went to Naples and studied them there. Ended up being the director of the Heidelberg institute.
There are as many world as there are subjects. These are phenomenal worlds.
We hear a noise and we turn to the cause. “Was it a russian missile?” [LMAOOOOOOOOOO]
Kant believed we had an a priori conception of causality and that’s how we understand everything. This is a thing that’s super special for humans. And this world we can understand is called a phenomenon.
Ontology talks about what being is.