Talk:History of zoology through 1859

Talk
This article needs to start with a discussion of Aristotle's zoology.--ragesoss 22:55, 9 January 2006 (UTC)
 * This article needs to start with paleolithic cave drawings of animals.--Wloveral (talk) 16:35, 3 May 2008 (UTC)

new out line

 * Pre-Aristotle
 * Domestication
 * Collections of wild animals
 * Aristotle's classification to Linaus
 * Pliny a step backward
 * Albertus Magnus, Vincentius Bellovacensis, and Thomas Cantipratensis
 * several others mentioned and


 * the page needs to be rewritten this is just my thoughts on a new outline Be Bold J8079s (talk) 19:18, 22 October 2014 (UTC)


 * See my comment on the next item. I agree that Pre/Post Aristotle is the distinction: before him, it wasn't zoology, however many animals were collected to impress people or beautify palaces; nor were domestication and the Neolithic revolution science either. Chiswick Chap (talk) 22:02, 24 November 2016 (UTC)

Off the track a bit
Zoology is a theoretical field of study on the topic of all animals, wherever and whatever they might be. This article delves, incorrectly, I believe, into other more practical fields, more in the line of arts, crafts, or skills, such as animal breeding or animal domestication. These are not strictly theoretical topics of study. So, the facts that Neolithic man domesticated animals or that ancient Egypt used cattle aren't zoology as such. What we would want to know is, what theory of animals did the Egyptians have? If they didn't have any, they shouldn't be in the article. The fact that they could milk or slaughter cattle or knew how to keep and feed them is not zoologic. A zoologist is a theoretical man; he studies facts about animals and comes up with theories, which he publishes with the evidence, to be learned by students and reviewed by peers. A stock-breeder is not per se a zoologist, although some stock-breeders might also be zoologists or be familiar with zoology.

A history of zoology is therefore a history of a field of study. It seems to me a good place to start would be the origin of the named field, zoology. We might mention how and when this named field began, and with whom. Then of course we would be covering the topic of zoological theories not under that name. How far back do those go? Aristotle, of course, the king of the theoreticians, offers much zoological theory under the general term "animals." He does not talk about stock-breeding. He mainly wants to describe and classify different animals, focusing on method of reproduction. I wish I knew more about animal theory in other ancient cultures. Since others no doubt have the same problem this is going to have to be a pooling of knowledge, as is so much of WP, by now practically an indispensable source. It seems to me the furthest back you possibly could go would be the first utterance of a classification of objects, say plant, animal, mineral. I'm afraid the Neolithic will be of no use to us there, as their languages are mainly vanished away.

In short, the best place to start is with definitions of animals and then of their field of study. Ciao.Botteville (talk) 22:36, 9 October 2016 (UTC)


 * I pretty much agree. Zoology is the systematic study of animals, and that began with Aristotle's biology. Then for nearly 2000 years, Aristotle guided and shaped zoology, so we ought to say how that worked. I'll see about cutting out the non-zoological precursor stuff. Chiswick Chap (talk) 21:59, 24 November 2016 (UTC)

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