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
- 7552 views
Blog Archive
- September 2017 (2)
- August 2017 (3)
- July 2017 (3)
- June 2017 (1)
- May 2017 (4)
- April 2017 (4)
- February 2017 (5)
- January 2017 (1)
- December 2016 (3)
- September 2016 (4)
- August 2016 (3)
- June 2016 (3)
- May 2016 (1)
- April 2016 (1)
- March 2016 (3)
- February 2016 (1)
- December 2015 (5)
- November 2015 (2)
- October 2015 (2)
- September 2015 (2)
- August 2015 (1)
- July 2015 (1)
- June 2015 (4)
- May 2015 (1)
- April 2015 (4)
- March 2015 (2)
- February 2015 (2)
- January 2015 (2)
- December 2014 (6)
- November 2014 (2)
- October 2014 (6)
- September 2014 (11)
- August 2014 (3)
- July 2014 (1)
- June 2014 (4)
- May 2014 (3)
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.