Childrens' book philosophy 16: Winnie the Pooh and Aristotle on Nature
"I'm planting a haycorn, Pooh, so that it can grow up into an oak-tree, and have lots of haycorns just outside the front door instead of having to walk miles and miles, do you see, Pooh?"
"Supposing it doesn't?" said Pooh.
"It will, because Christopher Robin says it will, so that's why I'm planting it."
"Well," said Pooh, "if I plant a honeycomb outside my house, then it will grow up into a beehive."
Piglet wasn't quite sure about this.
"Or a piece of a honeycomb," said Pooh, "so as not to waste too much. Only then I might only get a piece of a beehive, and it might be the wrong piece, where the bees were buzzing and not hunnying. Bother."
From A.A. Milne, "The House at Pooh Corner"
COMPARE TO:
Some identify the nature or substance of a natural object with that immediate constituent of it which taken by itself is without arrangement, e.g. the wood is the 'nature' of the bed, and the bronze the 'nature' of the statue. As an indication of this Antiphon points out that if you planted a bed and the rotting wood acquired the power of sending up a shoot, it would not be a bed that would come up, but wood-which shows that the arrangement in accordance with the rules of the art is merely an incidental attribute, whereas the real nature is the other, which, further, persists continuously through the process of making.
From Aristotle, Physics 2.1 (Hardie/Gaye trans.)
In reply to I really enjoy these by James MIller
Yes, fantastic! Glad you are
Yes, fantastic! Glad you are enjoying them, I also find them entertaining - and maybe people teaching philosophy to kids will want to use one or two of them.
Add new comment
- Add new comment
- 7550 views
Blog Archive
- November 2020 (3)
- October 2020 (4)
- September 2020 (2)
- August 2020 (1)
- July 2020 (4)
- June 2020 (2)
- May 2020 (1)
- March 2020 (4)
- February 2020 (1)
- January 2020 (5)
- November 2019 (2)
- October 2019 (4)
- September 2019 (3)
- August 2019 (3)
- July 2019 (2)
- June 2019 (2)
- May 2019 (2)
- April 2019 (3)
- March 2019 (2)
- February 2019 (4)
- January 2019 (2)
- December 2018 (5)
- November 2018 (1)
- October 2018 (3)
- September 2018 (5)
- August 2018 (8)
- July 2018 (4)
- June 2018 (2)
- May 2018 (3)
- April 2018 (5)
- March 2018 (3)
- February 2018 (3)
- January 2018 (3)
- December 2017 (5)
- November 2017 (4)
- October 2017 (5)
I really enjoy these
I really enjoy these Children's story Philosophies.
The "so that it can" suggests a second Aristotelian reading:
Material Cause: Soil and Acorn make Oak Tree
Formal Cause: The Acorn contains, in potential, the Form of the Oak tree awaiting actualisation.
Efficient Cause: Piglet is planting the Acorn, at this time, in this place.
Final Cause: It is all being done, "so that it can grow up into an oak-tree, and have lots of haycorns just outside the front door instead of having to walk miles and miles"
keep them coming they make me laugh and are sometimes useful in school.