Throughout history, there has been constant development to our understanding of exotic creatures. Ever since the beginning of man and rational thought, we have been fascinated with these animals and their existence in relation to ours. There are 4 basic periods of natural philosophy—Aristotelian philosophy, supernatural philosophy, preternatural philosophy, and modern science. The best way to understand these perspectives is to organize them in a linear fashion. For their group project, Derek Edry, Daniel Novick, Heather Gorawski, Michael Hennessey, and Kristie Adonizio analyzed each of these philosophies in relation to the naturalistic perspectives throughout history. Let us begin in Ancient Greece, with Aristotelian philosophy.
Before and during the 16th century, there wasn’t a genuine scientific study of creatures. Aristotelian philosophy states that only normally occurring things are worth being studied and further explored, and any anomalies should be ignored and are considered to be nothing more than freak occurrences. While there were supposed sightings, they were ignored for the most part, and the scientists that chose to pursue these findings were generally seen as crazy. While Aristotle’s writings combined the ideas of morality aesthetics, logic, science, politics, and metaphysics, they were flawed because they didn’t take into consideration anything supernatural. Because the foundation of Aristotle’s ideas were formed around reason, it allowed him to explore the role of senses, the role of abstraction, the laws of logic, and the laws of reasoning, all in a very objective way. In his studies with metaphysics he stressed what was real, in nature, in law, and how only one reality exists, because that is all that graspable by man. In his book, Founders of Western Philosophy: Thales to Hume, Leonard Peikoff claims that Aristotle made many errors, and that people weren’t able to branch out to more extensive philosophies until his errors were corrected. “…An inadequate explanation of sense perception and the nature of the mind.”
Supernaturalism is the logical counterpoint to Aristotle’s ideas. The supernatural is anything above or beyond what holds to be natural and exist outside of the observable universe. Science limits its explorations and explanations for phenomena to natural explanations and cannot consider supernatural explanations, as they cannot be investigated empirically. The supernatural concept is generally identified with religion or spirituality though there is debate as to whether a supernatural is necessary for religion, and the other way around. There are also those skeptical of the supernatural philosophy and deny the plausibility of it, typically claiming the events which cannot be studied and verified scientifically are unable to be perceived by any means.
Many supporters of supernatural explanations believe that the past, present and future complexities and mysteries of the universe cannot be explained solely by naturalistic means and argue that it is reasonable to assume that a non-natural entity can resolve the unexplained. This the supernatural as a higher power and scientists and non-believers state that human beings appoint supernatural attributes to purely natural events in an attempt to cope with their own fear, ignorance and the accordance to natural laws in which they do not yet fully understand. So as the predecessor to the supernatural philosophy, the Aristotelian philosophy, had scientists prodding and pushing the scientific knowledge of their time and gathering new information and making new discoveries, the uneducated people of the later years were placing spiritual theories to unexplainable events, creating supernatural stories and creatures such as Demons, ghosts, Bigfoot and even Champ to this day. This goes to show that the belief in magic, the supernatural entities originally stem from ones origins and surrounding daily practices. Acceptance of ghosts and similar impressions during the medieval times were simply the effect of humans following suit of their society’s structures and ways of functioning at a given point in time. Our beliefs and the imaginary are all extremely relevant to our cultures way of thinking; if you were somehow mistaken to believe you are not a conformist, think again.
As we all are well aware of, humans are known to be a bit lazy (well, really just Americans..) but don’t be worried, this isn’t a new discovery. In fact, this dates back to when the idea of magic and supernatural explanations became prominent in society. Both science and magic stem from the human imagination, observation and contemplation; but whereas science requires time and effort, magic simply provides an immediate solution to the unexplainable while being more appealing to the unscientific and perhaps uneducated mind. In this era, people may have been too adamant about finding easy answers, as not much was known to them if they were not privileged enough to receive an education. God was another outlet for those who yearned for answers, the unexplainable was simply met with the retort that God had wanted it so and no further investigation was necessary. Eventually the people began to find actual answers and data to confirm it, and this began the preternatural philosophy where the unexplainable was to finally be explained.
Preternatural Philosophy explained rarities and anomalies in nature. It became a somewhat scientific study in the sixteenth century and eventually dissolved into other forms of thought in the eighteenth century. As we know the naturalist philosophers at the time, following Aristotle's beliefs, only dealt with regularly occurring events in nature. Supernaturalists, dealt with these natural anomalies yet justified them as divine or godlike intervention. For the first time, Preternatural philosophers were using what they knew about nature to try and explain these anomalies.
Pretty much anything that was not naturally explained was subject to preternatural study: earthquakes, the reasoning behind why sheep and wolf were eternal enemies, rains of blood, two headed cats, etc. Monstrous beasts were certainly a hot topic in Preternatural Philosophy. Aristoteleans at the time, although they did not deny these phenomena occurred, did not deem them worthy of study of a philosophy since they were not regularly occurring and ‘demonstrable’.
A problem that developed in the preternatural was that a phenomenon's rarity can more often than not be subject to the type of observation. “What astonished the homebound lay reader might elicit only a yawn from a seasoned traveler or naturalist,” (Daston 44). Basically a rarity for some is not a rarity for all. In England, during the 1600s, a sketch of a giraffe or elephant would be subject to preternatural inquiry whereas to an African or Indian these are common animals, and would not be a rarity at all.
Although Preternatural philosophy did eventually diffuse itself in the eighteenth century, its ideas lived on. We no longer exclude something from scientific study because we can't "see" it or it does not occur all the time. Many studies nowadays deal with rarities not unlike what would be subject to preternatural inquiry. Scientific objects ranging from tsunamis and earthquakes to rare beats such as snow leopards. If the trend of studying only what is regular was not broken, science as we know it would be very different.
Modern science represents the development of technology and science which, beginning in the late 1800’s, revolutionized the World and our perspective of it, as well. While scientists today have studied many of the animals on this planet, down to a genetic level, they estimate that we only truly know one-tenth of the species. We have much to learn. On October 7th, The Huffington Post released an article titled “New Species Discovered: Conservation International Researchers Find Hundreds of Undocumented Creatures In Papa New Guinea” stating that the scientists found over two hundred new species in that area alone. In the eyes of many, preternatural and supernatural creatures still exist.
Nevertheless, supernaturalism has never truly died. Ghost stories dominate our “scientific” television programming (Discovery Channel, History Channel) and inspire people to travel the World in search of haunted locations. The vampire, werewolf pre-teen adventure Twilight dominates the box office, the most recent film (Eclipse) earning over $300,000,000. There are many who still believe in mystical creatures as well.
For example, there are many who believe in the Lake Champlain sea monster, “Champ”. There are also many who are wary of his existence, for good reason and proof. Champ’s first alleged sighting dates back to the year of 1609 by Samuel de Champlain, who also discovered Lake Champlain. Lake Champlain was formed by receding glaciers into a fresh-water 150 mile long lake in the pre-historic period when dinosaurs existed. Many think Champ survived the extinction of pre-historic creatures and spawned. There are over 300 reported sightings of the monster, with several images and one video. There were many legends from the Iroquois and the Abenaki tribes who called the creature “Tatoskok”. Sheriff Nathan Mooney had the first recorded sighting in 1883. Champ is said to be a cryptid looking like a pleisiosaur similar to a fish or an eel. The critics say Champ cannot possibly exist because there would need to be multiple of the creature to reproduce and a steady large food supply for the herd. Cryptozoologists argue against that saying there is a colony inhabiting the lake but are near extinction because of the food supply. Modern scientists have never found any specimen of such creature, and until then Champ remains a mystery and is considered non-existent by them.
As long as their remains an air of mystery to our World, all four philosophies will continue to have a place in our minds. Nevertheless, technology is improving exponentially—concepts which seemed mysterious just decades ago can now be explained through science and logic. The World is frighteningly meticulous, it’s measurements specified down to the last millimeter. Everything on this planet is exact—it’s flora, it’s fauna, even the unexplainable. Only our imaginations are left to keep these mystical creatures alive.
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