Yet, if D’Arcy Thompson is right, it was on Lesbos that Aristotle began the great work of charting, and understanding, the world of living things. It may have been a conversation; a chance comment that prompted an excited reply. And then more talk, and yet more, until a vision of the whole enormous, daunting, thrilling thing emerged. It’s an appealing thought – that biology began so. And it’s not an implausible one. For when Aristotle went to Lesbos it seems that he had at least one other philosopher to talk to: a man who would become one of his closest friends and who would inherit his
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