In the Eastern Aegean lies an island of forested hills & olive groves with streams marshes & a lagoon that nearly cuts the land in two It was here over two thousand years ago that Aristotle came to work Aristotle was the greatest philosopher of all time Author of the Poetics Politics & Metaphysics his work looms over the history of Western thought But he was also a biologist
- the first Aristotle explored the mysteries of the natural world With the help of fishermen hunters & farmers he catalogued the animals in his world dissected them observed their behaviours & recorded how they lived fed & bred In his great zoological treatise Historia animalium he described the mating habits of herons the sexual incontinence of girls the stomachs of snails the sensitivity of sponges the flippers of seals the sounds of cicadas the destructiveness of starfish the dumbness of the deaf the flatulence of elephants & the structure of the human heart & then in another dozen books he explained it all In The Lagoon acclaimed biologist Armand Marie Leroi recovers Aristotle's science He goes to Lesbos to see the creatures that Aristotle saw where he saw them & explores the Philosopher's deep ideas & inspired guesses
- as well as the things that he got wildly wrong Leroi shows how Aristotle's science is deeply intertwined with his philosophical system & how modern science even now bears the imprint of its inventor