ABSTRACT
Methodologically, the study of generation must be posterior to the study of that which is to be generated–generation is for the sake of being. There are familiar texts that argue that first philosophy, natural philosophy and mathematics are united as theoretical sciences and distinct in specific ways from practical and productive sciences. A number of those same texts spell out the differences between these three theoretical sciences. Read within their contexts as contributions to Aristotle’s research, however, they can help provide a better understanding of the internal conceptual and methodological relationships envisioned by Aristotle among his investigation of animals. There is a fundamental division, justified by reference to the teleological priority of being to generation, between the study of the structures and functions of the actual parts of mature organisms and the study of their generation. Aristotle’s thought about the structure of natural investigation appears to have been influenced by his reflections on the mathematical sciences.
