Talk:History of biology

Anthony, I think you would be more than justified to restore the large amounts of text that Richard Jensen has cut from the article.

Comments:

• A large section (see here) was deleted without explanation. This is highly inappropriate. Anthony, you can restore that deleted text by simply copying the red text from the left column, and pasting it in where appropriate.

• Will Durant's history of philosophy is an acceptable (if not the best) source for this introductory article, where it mentions the presocratics; history of philosophy (which here overlaps the history of science) is very relevant there, and Durant's history is an OK introduction.

• Richard, much more explanation than "drop the poetry--not part of development of biology" is needed for deleting an entire section. I thought the section about Lucretius was apt. Obviously, Dr. Sebastian thought it was relevant to the development of biology, or he would not have put it in the article.

--Larry Sanger 18:33, 12 July 2007 (CDT)

Durant is a poor source; he taught the history of metaphysics and made no pretense of knowing any biology; he read very little history of science. A college student that used him would be marked down. We have many histories of biology --several very good books are listed in the bibliog and are online at Questia; they have much more sophisticated treatments of Aristotle's biology and that is where CZ whould be based. Look at Singer for example (it's pretty old); my favorite is Mayr. The long poetry section is not part of the main history of biology. It is important not to look for "similarities" in the past, but to use modern history of science scholarship to see what linked to what. All sorts of imaginary reconstructions of what might have happened--that's a no-go for historians as well. Likewise imagining what Aristotle would say about today's biology. Using science/experiment to descibe hyothetical prehistory is likewise unhistorical. Richard Jensen 19:52, 12 July 2007 (CDT)