Author(s): Jonathan Barnes

Cultural Studies

Not many people can claim to have invented a new science, but the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle invented two - zoology and logic. More than two millennia after his death, we are still influenced by Aristotelian thought. When we use words such as "potential" and "actual", "theory" and "practice", we are speaking Aristotle's language. Here, over coffee, he talks with refreshing and illuminating simplicity about everything from causation and deduction to the role of women and the wonders of the natural world in a pre-scientific age. True, he thought a queen bee was actually a king, but about many other matters he was right on the button! First published 2008.