Here, I will post some ideas for my paper for the above mentioned class. Feedbacks are welcome.
1. It seems stomachs are important in many ways in Aristotle’s theory. For one, he declares that having a different size of stomach determines how long animals live, and for another the more teeth means less number of stomach in an animal. The most important is that it acts as a concocting device, discharging excess and residue while decomposing the food and turn it into nutrition. The nutrition goes to the upper part of the body while the residue goes to the lower part. The mid-point is the stomach, where the sorting of the food happens. Digestive organ is this stomach. That’s why the less teeth you have, the more stomachs you need since chewing is the first stage of mastication. Following this, though, all animals with a tooth must have a stomach. But what about some plants who eat insects? So long as they need to digest, don’t they need a stomach? Acid and enzymes seem to be located on the ‘mouth’ of these plants, but don’t plants, according to Aristotle, have a mouth at the bottom, where the roots are? The lower part is for the sake of the upper part, and if this is true to all animals (vice versa for plants), what can be said about plants like venus flytrap? They consume from the lower part of the body, they eat insects from the mouth, yet have no stomachs? Another curious case is with anteaters. For they do not have teeth, but have a stomach. Aristotle said all animals that have teeth have stomachs, but it doesn’t mean animals that do not have teeth don’t. True, but if some animals with no teeth, like turtles and tortoises, can have a stomach, why can’t plants that eat have a stomach as well?
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