Aristotle’s Treatise On Youth and Old Age, Life and Death As a Part of the Parva Naturalia Collection

Abstract

The article discusses the text and main topics of Aristotle's treatise "On youth and old age, life and death" as a work of the Parva naturalia collection, i.e. small works which discuss natural phenomena involving the body and the soul. This publication presents a new translation into Russian of this Aristotle’s work, a study and comments on special Aristotelian terminology, the most interest themes of the treatise are compared with other passages from relevant works of the Corpus Aristotelicum. The article as an introduction to the first translation of this text summarizes the arguments pro et contra the publication of this text as an independent treatise “On Youth and Old Age, Life and Death” (chapters 1‒6) and as part of the 27-chapter treatise “On Youth and Old Age, Life and Death and on Respiration” (in this case, chapters 7‒27 correspond to the text of the treatise "On Respiration"). The article discusses such topics as Aristotle’s doctrine on the middle, the heart as the most important part of the living body, "perittoma" (excess, undigested food debris), two types of extinction of fire as a metaphor for life and death, innate natural heat. A complete translation of the treatise is presented after analysis of the content of its six chapters.