Aristotle / 2008-07-09 00:00:00

350 BC
ON THE GENERATION OF ANIMALS
by Aristotle
translated by Arthur Platt
Book I
1
WE have now discussed the other parts of animals, both generally and
with reference to the peculiarities of each kind, explaining how
each part exists on account of such a cause, and I mean by this the
final cause.
There are four causes underlying everything: first, the final cause,
that for the sake of which a thing exists; secondly, the formal cause,
the definition of its essence (and these two we may regard pretty
much as one and the same); thirdly, the material; and fourthly, the
moving principle or efficient cause.
We have then already discussed the other three causes, for the
definition and the final cause are the same, and the material of
animals is their parts of the whole animal the non-homogeneous
parts, of these again the homogeneous, and of these last the so-called
elements of all matter. It remains to speak of those parts which
contribute to the generation of animals and of which nothing
definite has yet been said, and to explain what is the moving or
efficient cause. To inquire into this last and to inquire into the
generation of each animal is in a way the same thing; and,
therefore, my plan has united them together, arranging the
discussion of these parts last, and the beginning of the question of
generation next to them.
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