Aristotle

=== Present science ===
The philosopher [[Bertrand Russell]] claims that "almost every serious intellectual advance has had to begin with an attack on some Aristotelian doctrine". Russell calls Aristotle's ethics "repulsive", and labelled his logic "as definitely antiquated as Ptolemaic astronomy". Russell states that these errors make it difficult to do historical justice to Aristotle, until one remembers what an advance he made upon all of his predecessors.{{sfn|Russell|1972|loc=Chapter 19 "Aristotle's Metaphysics"}}

The Dutch historian of science [[Eduard Jan Dijksterhuis]] writes that Aristotle and his predecessors showed the difficulty of science by "proceed[ing] so readily to frame a theory of such a general character" on limited evidence from their senses.{{sfn|Dijksterhuis|1969|p=72}} In 1985, the biologist [[Peter Medawar]] could still state in "pure seventeenth century"{{sfn|Leroi|2015|p=353}} tones that Aristotle had assembled "a strange and generally speaking rather tiresome farrago of hearsay, imperfect observation, wishful thinking and credulity amounting to downright gullibility".{{sfn|Leroi|2015|p=353}}{{sfn|Medawar|Medawar|1984|p=28}}

Zoologists have frequently mocked Aristotle for errors and unverified secondhand reports. However, modern observation has confirmed several of his more surprising claims.<ref>{{cite book |last=Ogilvie |first=Brian W. |chapter=Zoology |editor1=Grafton, Anthony |editor2=Most, Glenn W. |editor3=Settis, Salvatore |title=The Classical Tradition |publisher=[[Harvard University Press]] |date=2010 |isbn=978-0-674-07227-5 |pages=1000–1001}}</ref><ref name=Forbes>{{cite book |last=Forbes |first=Peter |date=2009 |title=[[Dazzled and Deceived: Mimicry and Camouflage]] |publisher=[[Yale University Press]] |isbn=978-0-300-12539-9 |pages=236–239}}</ref>{{sfn|Leroi|2015|pages=137–138}} Aristotle's work remains largely unknown to modern scientists, though zoologists sometimes mention him as the father of biology{{sfn|Leroi|2015|page=352}} or in particular of [[marine biology]].<ref name=MarineBio>{{cite web |title=A History of the Study of Marine Biology |url=http://marinebio.org/oceans/history-of-marine-biology/ |publisher=MarineBio Conservation Society |access-date=19 November 2016}}</ref> Practising zoologists are unlikely to adhere to Aristotle's chain of being, but its influence is still perceptible in the use of the terms "lower" and "upper" to designate taxa such as groups of plants.<ref name="Rigato & Minelli 2013">{{cite journal |last1=Rigato |first1=Emanuele |last2=Minelli |first2=Alessandro |title=The great chain of being is still here |journal=Evolution: Education and Outreach |date=28 June 2013 |volume=6 |issue=18 |pages=1–6 |doi=10.1186/1936-6434-6-18 |url=http://www.evolution-outreach.com/content/6/1/18 |issn=1936-6434|doi-access=free }}</ref> The evolutionary biologist [[Armand Marie Leroi]] has reconstructed Aristotle's biology,{{sfn|Leroi|2015}} while [[Tinbergen's four questions|Niko Tinbergen's four questions]], based on Aristotle's four causes, are used to analyse [[animal behaviour]]; they examine [[function (biology)|function]], [[phylogeny]], [[mechanism (biology)|mechanism]], and [[ontogeny]].{{sfn|MacDougall-Shackleton|2011|pp=2076–2085}}{{sfn|Hladký|Havlíček|2013}} The concept of [[Homology (biology)|homology]] began with Aristotle;<ref name="Panchen 1999 pp. 5–18; discussion 18–23">{{cite book | last=Panchen | first=A. L. | chapter=Homology — History of a Concept | title=Novartis Foundation Symposium 222 - Homology | series=Novartis Foundation Symposia | volume=222 | year=1999 | pmid=10332750 | pages=5–18; discussion 18–23| doi=10.1002/9780470515655.ch2 | isbn=9780470515655 }}</ref> the [[evo-devo|evolutionary developmental biologist]] [[Lewis I. Held]] commented that he would be interested in the concept of [[deep homology]].<ref name=Held2017>{{cite book |last1=Held |first1=Lewis I. |author-link=Lewis I. Held |title=Deep Homology?: Uncanny Similarities of Humans and Flies Uncovered by Evo-Devo |date=February 2017 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1316601211 |page=viii}}</ref>