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The author explores how Western philosophers understood life and the soul in the early modern period - before Descartes radically changed how the universe was conceived. Des Chene considers the work of writers including Suarez and Coimbrans who provided studies of Aristotle's definitions of soul and life. The text is not limited to questions relevant to the human case, such as the immortality of the soul. Des Chene analyzes what might be called the protobiology of the late Aristotelian: the theory of living things in general, of their powers and of the relation between the soul and body in all organisms. He offers insights into conceptual issues of renewed relevance to the philosophy of biology.