Plato’s fans – he still has some – are particularly prone to viewing Aristotle as his teacher’s epigone. That can be accomplished only by studiously ignoring how Aristotle transformed Plato’s ideas. As a student Darwin read, and enjoyed, Paley’s Natural Theology and may have even acquired from it his keen sense of the design displayed by living things. Yet who would call Darwin a Paleyite? Calling Aristotle a Platonist is like that.
