Aristotle not only produced a new system of explanation, but also applied it. His predecessors viewed the world as if from Olympus. It lay far below them blurred by distance or obscured entirely by mist, and speculation filled in what they could not see. Aristotle, however, went down to the shore. He observed, applied his causes to his observations and wove them together in the books that make up his Great Course in Zoology: The Parts of Animals, The Length and Shortness of Life, Youth & Old Age, Life & Death, The Soul, The Generation of Animals, The Movement of Animals and The Progression of
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