Pliny as "Scientist"

In the introduction to Aristotle's Metaphysics we learn that curiosity is a compelling force if we are to learn about the ways in which the world is constituted. In Aristotle this leads to an attempt to classify all of creation on a systematic basis, to establish a model, so to speak. Pliny on the other hand does not pretend to follow the Aristotelian path, even though he uses much material directly or indirectly from the Metaphysics. Pliny seldom works on empirical principles and he does not go out of his way to verify his postulates. What really arouses his curiosity are phenomena of an extraordinary kind, the wondrous. His knowledge is not gained from Nature directly, but from others' books. Aristotle himself worked his way through the results of others in his library, but he did so in order to criticize and perhaps reject their points of view and so he was enabled to propose something new. Pliny, on the other hand, refers above all to auctores and it is only afterwards that he may choose to supplement this with his own experience from his journeys and sojourns in diverse parts of the Roman Empire. ¹³¹ In the Natural History there are frequent discussions of theories, even of foolish ones, of which Pliny disapproves. Nevertheless they are included for the benefit of the reader. Aristotle's and Pliny's attitude to science are very different, ¹³² and the reason is that by Pliny's time a work on the natural sciences served an altogether different purpose.