ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an account of Aristotle’s conception of historia in his overall philosophy and, on this basis, interprets his remarks on history in the Poetics. In addition to works devoted exclusively to preparing the material for the search for causes, such as the Historia Animalium, the Constitution of Athens, this paper analyzes the internal historia contained in two etiological treatises, namely the Metaphysics and the Poetics. The reputable opinions of the wise are typically theories elaborated by previous philosophers and natural scientists. Aristotle wrote a number of works entirely devoted to the theoretically motivated organization of the facts. The field of zoology is particularly amenable to this kind of inquiry because the stability of animal species, the cyclical character of animal development enable researchers to repeat observations and experiments. The philosopher, on the other hand, uses the particular connections discovered by the historian to develop hypotheses about general trends in human history and, on that basis, about human nature.
