THE LAGOON: HOW ARISTOTLE INVENTED SCIENCE. by Leroi, Armand Marie - 2014

New York: Viking, 2014. 501 pp, 9 1/4" H. B&w illustrations. "In 345 BC Aristotle arrived on (Lesbos). In Athens, he had been taught by Plato to seek truth in the intangible realm of ideas. But, rejecting his teacher's metaphysics, Aristotle turned to the natural world and began the greatest of all human endeavors. He catalogued the animals in his world. He observed them, dissected them and recorded how they lived, fed and bred. He described the salaciousness of sparrows, the sexual incontinence of girls, the stomachs of snails, the sensitivity of sponges, the sounds of cicadas and the structure of the human heart. And then he explained it all. (This) is the story of how Aristotle founded science; how for centuries his work was celebrated and how, in the Scientific Revolution, it was condemned. (The author) recovers Aristotle's science, beautiful, vast and forgotten. He examines the creatures that Aristotle knew and loved, his profound ideas and inspired theories, as well as the things that he got wildly wrong. Modern science still bears the stamp of its founder. Even now, Aristotle teaches us how to discover new worlds." Minor wrinkling at the top/bottom of the hinges. Dust jacket has very minor edge wrinkling, black marker line through the barcode.. Third Printing. Hard Cover. Very Good+/Very Good. Illus. by David Koutsogiannopoulos..