Aristotle as an author. An analysis of his 'epistemic writing' within the biological work De generatione animalium

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Sabine Föllinger
• Subject Area: Greek and Latin Philology
• Term: from 2017 to 2020
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 341572073

This project intends to provide an in-depth analysis of Aristotle's way of presentation as manifest in his De generatione animalium, a work central to Aristotelian biology, wherein the author attempts a large-scale causal explanation of the phenomena of generation and heredity. With regard both to its use of language and to the line of reasoning, this piece of scientific prose is to be scrutinized. The goal is to investigate how the Aristotelian manner of literary representation corresponds to the argumentative structures.A point of departure for this approach is to be seen in the discussion of the literary status of the Aristotelian pragmateiai, a discussion which has become especially important in light of the recent investigation of ancient non-fictional prose writing. As current research is revealing ever more clearly, the pragmateiai appear to defy any simple characterization by categories such as "literary vs. unliterary" or the German "Kunst- vs. Sachprosa". Another starting point lies in the current debate about how far the logical structures of Aristotelian pragmateiai meet the standards Aristotle himself establishes within his philosophy of science, sc. in the Posterior Analytics.The applicant now wants to systematically combine and interrelate logical and philological analysis of Aristotle's study of animal generation. Here she may resume some of her own contributions which undertake to appreciate the pragmateiai as products of a process of 'epistemic writing', wherein the author generates knowledge and at the same time tries to effectively communicate it to his recipients.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants