Categorizing difference: Classification, biology, and politics in Aristotelian philosophy

This dissertation studies the intersection of Aristotelian taxonomic categorization, natural history, and political science. It focuses on Aristotle's interest in the description and organization of "difference" in all of these fields and demonstrates that the same theories and methods used in the logical and abstract categorization of difference were also employed by Aristotle in his approach to both natural and political science.;The first section of the project is concerned with Aristotle's conceptualization of a logical system of categorization and with his inquiries into biological science. This part of the dissertation is primarily concerned with with Aristotle's writings on biology and zoology, primarily the Parts of Animals, the Generation of Animals, and the History of Animals , revolves around a key set of concepts: ousia ("being" or "essence"), phusis ("innate nature"), and poiotēs ("quality") as well as terms that form the core of Aristotle's hierarchical system of classification in the Categories: genos ("genus"), eidos ("species"), atomon ("individual thing"), and diaphora ("difference").;The second part of the project shifts to Aristotle's political philosophy. In the Aristotelian curriculum the study of politics was underpinned by principles and observations drawn from the natural sciences. Through a reading the Politics, the dissertation demonstrates how the methods and terminology of categorization were of the utmost importance for students of political science. This section of the study also also explores how empirical knowledge of the natural world, such as the understanding of reproductive science, the heritability of phenotypic traits, biological hybridism, and animal physiology, enables a statesman to maintain a polis populated by citizens of sound mind and body.