Um olhar sobre o estudo dos seres vivos na idade média: temas fundamentais na filosofia da natureza

Abstract

We can not talk of biology as a science that studies living beings before the nineteenth century. However, from antiquity the animals, plants and human beings themselves are part of the universe of concern of society, constituting a base of knowledge on living beings. In the Middle Ages, this can also be identified. Thus the aim of this paper is to present information that supports a general understanding about how knowledge of living things was being constituted in this period, noting the influence that the historical context and world view (of nature) this process of understanding reality. Seek to present an overview of the period, emphasizing three aspects: the way in which the philosophers of the time saw nature as living beings are included in this look, and what was the historical context in which it was drawn up look. Not there is biology in the Middle Ages, but a philosophy of nature. In the period is set some themes that are centuries following objects of investigation, such as: the structure, processes, interactions of living beings among themselves and with medium, its variations and transformations.