Theophrastus - a famous ancient Greek scientist, naturalist, one of the creators of botany, philosopher - was a native of the city of Erez, where he was born in 371 BC. e. In his young years, having moved to Athens, he was a student of famous philosophers (in his city he also showed interest in philosophy, listening to Leucippus). At first he was a student at Plato's Academy, and after he died, he became a student at the Aristotelian Lyceum. He remained in this capacity until Aristotle left Athens forever.
Sources indicate that Theophrastus was intelligent, versatile capable person, the owner of the best spiritual qualities - humanity, kindness, responsiveness. His biography was not marked by any unexpected events or special shocks. After his birth he was named Tirtham, but Aristotle, as legend says, gave the nickname Theophrastus, which meant “divine orator”, “possessor of divine speech”. It is difficult to determine how true the legend is, but it is known that Theophrastus was indeed an excellent orator and Aristotle’s favorite student, who became one of his most famous wards. It was to him that Aristotle left all his manuscripts and his accumulated library as an inheritance, and it was Theophrastus who headed the Peripatetic school when his mentor died. Ancient sources say that the number of Theophrastus’ students reached two thousand people, and his name resounded far beyond the borders of his country.
It is believed that Theophrastus was the author of 227 works. Most of them have not survived to our era, and the remaining ones bear the destructive imprint of time and repeated rewriting. Two have survived to this day. major works in botany. The first, consisting of 9 books, is “Natural History of Plants,” which outlines the systematics, anatomy and morphology of plants (using modern terminology). The same factual material, but presented from the standpoint of plant physiology (theoretical and applied), formed the basis of the second essay - “On the Causes of Plants”, or “On Life Phenomena in Plants”, consisting of 6 books.
An objective assessment of Theophrastus's botanical works is complicated by the incomplete preservation of his works, as well as the difficulty of distinguishing between the ideas of the philosopher and his outstanding mentor Aristotle. It is possible that Theophrastus preached his thoughts to a greater extent than he was an independent scientist. In the strict sense of the word, the works of Theophrastus cannot be called scientific; however, for his time, his works were the best collection of information about the plant world. In addition, they are a valuable cultural monument Ancient Greece generally. It is also known that Theophrastus wrote the “Textbook of Rhetoric”, as well as the book “Characters”, in which he analyzed various types of people. All these publications have not survived to this day.
Subject and objects of science. The ability of barley extracts to convert starch into sugar. Endoplasmic chain. Sciences are different from each other. Theory of phylembryogenesis. Methods of biological science. New sciences. Biology is the science of living nature. Development of fly larvae from laid eggs. Population genetics. Animal cloning has begun. Biological (phagocytic) theory of immunity. Biology. Ichthyology. Problems of biology.
“A Brief History of the Development of Biology” - Robert Koch at work. Hippocrates. Arab scientists. Achievements of modern biology. Andreas Vesalius. Brief history development of biology. Aristotle. Leonardo da Vinci. Drawings from the atlas of Vesalius. Karl Ernest Baer. Carl Linnaeus. Claudius Galen. William Harvey. Matthias Schleiden. Hippocratic Oath. Ilya Mechnikov. Jean Baptiste Lamarck. Review questions. Georges Cuvier. Drawings from da Vinci's atlas. Charles Darwin.
“A Brief History of Biology” - Paradigms of classical genetics. Paradigm theory. Molecular biology and reductionism. Organismic paradigm. Philosophical foundations of classical biology. Inductive-empirical method. The emergence of biology. Scientific schools. Evolutionary paradigm. The world is like an organism. Semiotic paradigm. Cognitive models of biology. Embryology of invertebrates. Transformism. Cognitive models of biology.
“History and methodology of biology” - Hellenistic period. Egypt. Objective idealism. Anaxagoras. Aristotle's Ladder of Nature. Library of the city of Alexandria. Aristotle. Asimov Isaac. Origin of science. The doctrine of the natural causes of disease. Pythagoras' motto. Dioscorides. Herophilus. Origin of man. History of animals. Studied the anatomy of sheep. Development of biological knowledge. Aristotle's doctrine of the three kinds of souls. Anaximenes. Heraclitus of Ephesus.
“The main stages of the development of biology” - The main directions of modern biology. Hugo de Vries. Biology. Galen. Identifying similarities and differences. The emergence of ancient states. Leonardo di Ser Piero da Vinci. Descriptive science. Scientific methods. A Brief History of Biology. Science. Renaissance period. Aristotle. Stages of development of biology. Theophrastus. The principle of “take nothing for granted.” Comparison of facts. Collection of factual material. "Genetic" period.
“Stages of development of biology” - Renaissance period. Fill out the table. Creation of cell theory. Sphere of human activity. Galen. Leonardo di Ser Piero da Vinci. Biology. Biology as a science. Hippocrates. Identifying similarities and differences between organisms. Comparison of facts. Scientific methods. Answer the questions. Stages of development of biology. Hugo de Vries. The emergence of ancient states. Aristotle. "Genetic" period. Collection of factual material.
Theophrastus, or Theophrastus, or Tyrtamos, or Tirtham (lat. Theophrastos Eresios, born about 370 BC, Eres on Lesbos - died between 288 BC and 285 BC, Athens) — ancient Greek philosopher, natural scientist, music theorist.
Versatile scientist; Along with Aristotle, he is the founder of botany and plant geography. Thanks to the historical part of his teaching about nature, he acts as the founder of the history of philosophy (especially psychology and the theory of knowledge).
Native of Eres on the island of Lesbos. He studied in Athens with Plato, and then with Aristotle and became his closest friend, and in 323 BC. e. - successor as head of the Peripatetic school.
He wrote (about 300 BC) two books about plants: “The History of Plants” (Latin: Historia plantarum) and “Causes of Plants” (Latin: De causis plantarum), which provide the basics of the classification and physiology of plants, describing about 500 plant species, and which were subject to many comments and were often republished.
Despite the fact that Theophrastus in his “botanical” works does not adhere to any special methods, he introduced ideas into the study of plants that were completely free from the prejudices of that time and assumed, like a true naturalist, that nature acts in accordance with its own plans, and not for the purpose of be useful to a person.
He outlined with his characteristic insight major problems scientific plant physiology. How are plants different from animals? What organs do plants have?
What is the activity of the root, stem, leaves, fruits? Why do plants get sick? What impact do they have on flora heat and cold, humidity and dryness, soil and climate? Can a plant arise by itself (generate spontaneously)?
Can one type of plant change into another? These were the questions that interested the inquisitive mind of Theophrastus; for the most part these are the same questions that still interest naturalists today.
Their production itself is a huge credit to the great Greek botanist. As for the answers, at that time, in the absence of the necessary factual material, they could not be given with proper accuracy and scientificity.
Along with general observations, “The History of Plants” contains recommendations for practical application plants. In particular, Theophrastus accurately describes the technology of growing a special type of reed and making canes from it for aulos.
The most famous is his essay “Ethical Characters” (Russian translation “On the Properties of Human Morals”, 1772, or “Characteristics”, St. Petersburg, 1888), a collection of 30 essays on human types, which depict a flatterer, a talker, a braggart, a proud man, a grumbler , distrustful, etc., and each is masterfully depicted with vivid situations in which this type manifests itself.
So, when the collection of donations begins, the stingy one leaves the meeting without saying a word. Being the captain of the ship, he goes to bed on the helmsman's mattress, and on the Feast of the Muses (when it was customary to send a reward to the teacher) he leaves the children at home. They often talk about the mutual influence of the Characters of Theophrastus and the characters of the new Greek comedy.
His influence on all modern literature is undoubted. It was by starting with translations of Theophrastus that the French moralist writer La Bruyère created his “Characters, or Morals of Our Age” (1688). Theophrastus is the origin of the literary portrait, an integral part of any European novel.
A valuable fragment has been preserved from the two-volume treatise “On Music” (included by Porphyry in his commentary on Ptolemy’s “Harmonica”), in which the philosopher, on the one hand, polemicizes with the Pythagorean-Platonic idea of music as another sounding “incarnation” of numbers.
On the other hand, he considers the thesis of harmonics (and perhaps Aristoxenus) to be of little significance, who considered melody as a sequence of discrete quantities - intervals (gaps between heights). The nature of music, Theophrastus concludes, is not in intervallic movement and not in numbers, but in “the movement of the soul, which gets rid of evil through experience. Without this movement, there would be no essence of music.”
— Texts and translations
— Greek texts:
Works (Theophrasti Eresii Opera quae supersunt omnia. Lipsiae, Greek text):
* Volume 1. An Inquiry into Plants (1854)
* Volume 2. On the Causes of Plants (1854)
* Volume 3. Fragments (1862 edition)
— Russians:
* Theophrastus. Research about plants. / Per. and note. M. E. Sergeenko. Ed. I. I. Tolstoy and B. K. Shishkin. (Series “Classics of Science”). M.-L.: Publishing house of the USSR Academy of Sciences. 1951. 592 pp. 3000 copies.
o reprint: Theophrastus. Research about plants. - Ryazan: Alexandria, 2005. - 560 p. — ISBN 5-94460-023-3 (Ancient Historical Library Series).
— “Characters”:
* Theophrastus on the properties of human morals. / Per. from lat. A. Ya. Polekova. St. Petersburg, 1772. 112 pp.
* Theophrastus. Characteristics. / Per. V. Alekseeva. St. Petersburg, 1888. 32 pp.
* Theophrastus. Characters. / Per. V. Smirina. // Menander. Comedy. Herod. Mimiamba. (Series “Library of Ancient Literature”). M.: Artist. lit. 1964. P.260-286.
* Theophrastus. Characters. - L.: Nauka, 1974. - 123 p. — ( Literary monuments). Per., art. and approx. G. A. Stratanovsky. Rep. ed. Ya. M. Borovsky. 50000 copies
reprint: St. Petersburg: Nauka, 2007.
— Other writings:
* Theophrastus. About stones. / Per. from English B.V. Kulikova. (Series “The World of Stones and Minerals”). M.: SME. 2004. 247 pp.
* Theophrastus. About stones. / Transl., Art. and comm. A. A. Rossius. // Messenger ancient history. 2005. № 3.
* About flowers. / Per. V. P. Zubova. // Points-Puncta 7, 1-2, 2007. pp. 7-21.
* Pseudo-Theophrastus. About the signs of rain, winds, bad weather and buckets. // Sky, science, poetry... M., 1992. P. 88-100.
* About the soul (fragments). / Per. G. F. Tsereteli. // Tannery P. The first steps of Greek science. St. Petersburg, 1902.
— English:
* Publications in the Loeb classical library:
* Volume 1. No. 70. 1916. Research on plants, books 1-5.
* Volume 2. No. 79. 1916. Research on plants, books 6-9. About smells. About weather signs.
* Volumes III-V. No. 471, 474, 475. 1989-1990. On the causes of plants (books 1-6).
— Other publications:
* About winds and weather - English. lane 1894.
* “Characters” from English. lane Edmonds (1929)
* “About Stones”: text and English. lane (1956)
* Theophrastus, (1993), Metaphysics. With an Introduction, Translation and Commentary by M. van Raalte, Leiden: Brill
— French:
* In the “Collection Bude” series “Recherches sur les plantes” was published in 5 volumes. Also published in the “Collection Bude” series:
* Theophraste. Caracteres. Texte etabli et traduit par O. Navarre. 4e circulation 2003. 166 p.
* Theophraste. Metaphysics. Texte edite, traduit et annote par A. Laks et G. W. Most avec la collaboration de Ch. Larmore et E. Rudolph et pour la traduction arabe de M. Crubellier. 3rd edition 2002. XC, 119 p. ISBN 978-2-251-00422-8
Bust of Theophrastus
Theophrastus, or Theophrastus, or Tirtamos, or Tirtham ancient Greek philosopher, natural scientist, music theorist.
Versatile scientist; Along with Aristotle, he is the founder of botany and plant geography. Thanks to the historical part of his teaching about nature, he acts as the founder of the history of philosophy.
Native of Eres on the island of Lesbos. He studied in Athens with Plato, and then with Aristotle and became his closest friend, and in 323 BC. e. successor as head of the Peripatetic school.
Works
Frontispiece of the illustrated edition of Historia Plantarum, Amsterdam, 1644
Works on botany
He wrote two books about plants: “The History of Plants” and “Causes of Plants,” which give the basics of classification and physiology of plants, describe about 500 plant species, and which were subject to many commentaries and were often reprinted. Despite the fact that Theophrastus in his “botanical” works does not adhere to any special methods, he introduced ideas into the study of plants that were completely free from the prejudices of that time and assumed, like a true naturalist, that nature acts in accordance with its own plans, and not for the purpose of be useful to a person. With his characteristic insight, he outlined the most important problems of scientific plant physiology. How are plants different from animals? What organs do plants have? What is the activity of the root, stem, leaves, fruits? Why do plants get sick? What effect do heat and cold, humidity and dryness, soil and climate have on the plant world? Can a plant arise by itself? Can one type of plant change into another? These were the questions that interested the inquisitive mind of Theophrastus; for the most part these are the same questions that still interest naturalists today. Their production itself owes enormous credit to the great Greek botanist. As for the answers, at that time, in the absence of the necessary factual material, they could not be given with proper accuracy and scientificity.
Along with general observations, “The History of Plants” contains recommendations for the practical use of plants. In particular, Theophrastus accurately describes the technology of growing a special type of reed and making canes from it for aulos.
Other notable works
The most famous is his work “Ethical Characters,” a collection of 30 essays on human types, which depict a flatterer, a talker, a braggart, a proud person, a grouch, a distrustful person, etc., each skillfully depicted with vivid situations in which this type manifests itself. So, when the collection of donations begins, the stingy one leaves the meeting without saying a word. Being the captain of the ship, he goes to bed on the helmsman's mattress, and on the Feast of the Muses he leaves the children at home. They often talk about the mutual influence of the Characters of Theophrastus and the characters of the new Greek comedy. His influence on all modern literature is undoubted. It was by starting with translations of Theophrastus that the French moralist writer La Bruyère created his “Characters, or Morals of Our Age.” Theophrastus is the origin of the literary portrait, an integral part of any European novel.
A valuable fragment has been preserved from the two-volume treatise “On Music”, in which the philosopher, on the one hand, polemicizes with the Pythagorean-Platonic idea of music as another “sounding” “incarnation” of numbers. On the other hand, he considers the thesis of the harmonics, who considered the melody as a sequence of discrete values of intervals, to be of little significance. The nature of music, Theophrastus concludes, is not in intervallic movement and not in numbers, but in “the movement of the soul, which gets rid of evil through experience. Without this movement, there would be no essence of music.”
Theophrastus also owns the essay “On the Syllable,” which, according to M.L. Gasparov, in terms of his significance for the entire ancient theory of oratory, stands almost higher than Aristotle’s Rhetoric. He is repeatedly mentioned by Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Demetrius of Phalerus and others.
Slide 3
Works on botany
Theophrastus is called the "father of botany." The botanical works of Theophrastus can be considered as a compilation of the knowledge of practitioners into a single system of knowledge agriculture, medicine and the works of scientists of the ancient world in this field. Theophrastus was the founder of botany as an independent science: along with describing the use of plants in agriculture and medicine, he considered theoretical issues. The influence of Theophrastus’s works on the subsequent development of botany for many centuries was enormous, since scientists Ancient world did not rise above him either in understanding the nature of plants or in describing their forms. In accordance with the level of knowledge contemporary to him, certain provisions of Theophrastus were naive and unscientific. Scientists of that time did not yet have high research technology, and there were no scientific experiments. But with all this, the level of knowledge achieved by the “father of botany” was very significant.
He wrote two books about plants: “The History of Plants” and “Causes of Plants,” which provide the basics of the classification and physiology of plants, describe about 500 plant species, and which were subject to many commentaries and were often reprinted. Despite the fact that Theophrastus in his “botanical” works does not adhere to any special methods, he introduced ideas into the study of plants that were completely free from the prejudices of that time and assumed, like a true naturalist, that nature acts in accordance with its own plans, and not for the purpose of be useful to a person. He outlined with insight the main problems of scientific plant physiology. How are plants different from animals? What organs do plants have? What is the activity of the root, stem, leaves, fruits? Why do plants get sick? What effect do heat and cold, humidity and dryness, soil and climate have on the plant world? Can a plant arise by itself (generate spontaneously)? Can one type of plant change into another? These were the questions that interested the mind of Theophrastus; for the most part these are the same questions that still interest naturalists today. Their production itself is a huge merit of the Greek botanist. As for the answers, at that time, in the absence of the necessary factual material, they could not be given with proper accuracy and scientificity.
Along with general observations, “The History of Plants” contains recommendations for the practical use of plants. In particular, Theophrastus accurately describes the technology of growing a special type of reed and making canes from it for aulos.