Pinakes | Πίνακες

Résumé :

Although the Problemata physica attributed to Aristotle is beginning to receive more attention, Book 4 (περὶ ἀφροδίσια) has generally been neglected. This essay attempts to shed some light on Pr. 4 and to determine what it might tell us about the study of reproduction, and Aristotelian engagement with Hippocratic medicine, in the early Peripatos. After sketching the pangenesis theory (in the Hippocratic On Seed), and Aristotle’s critique of that theory and his alternative account of generation (in the Generation of Animals), I examine three chapters of Pr. 4 (2, 15, and 21), each of which raises questions about Aristotle’s rejection of the Hippocratic pangenesis theory. I argue that although there are no challenges to Aristotle’s account of generation generally, doubts or concerns are being raised in connection with certain aspects of that account, including doubts about some of Aristotle’s reasons for rejecting the pangenesis theory and about whether certain aspects of that theory might well be superior or in some way worth salvaging. I end by speculating—based on the available evidence—that the date of the three chapters I examine likely falls somewhere between the period in which Aristotle himself was active and the time when Strato was scholarch.