生物一词的由来

Biology来自于希腊语（Greek βιολογία - βίος,bios,"life"; -λογία,-logia）.
大英百科全书（Britannica Online Encyclopedia）关于生物学的历史中提到,虽然古巴比伦、古埃及、古中国、印度等积累了众多的生物学信息,但是那时候这些国家都相信不可预知的鬼神的力量、相信精神的作用,在这种文化背景下,人们通常用超自然力来理解生物现象（Although the Babylonians,Assyrians,Egyptians,Chinese,and Indians amassed much biological information,they lived in a world believed to be dominated by unpredictable demons and spirits.Hence,learned men in these early cultures directed their studies toward an understanding of the supernatural,rather than the natural,world.）.
一直到古希腊年代,一些古希腊的哲学家提出了“因果关系”的概念,他们认为“自然法则”在控制着世界并且这些规律能够被人们通过观察、推理等研究而理解（Around 600 bc there arose a school of Greek philosophers who believed that every event has a cause and that a particular cause produces a particular effect.This concept,known as causality,had a profound effect on subsequent scientific investigation.Furthermore,these philosophers assumed the existence of a “natural law” that governs the universe and can be comprehended by man through the use of his powers of observation and deduction.They established the science of biology.）.他们建立了生物学,而biology正是来源于希腊语.
你可以想见,古希腊人提出了生物学这个词（当然是用希腊语）,后来谁首先用了英文的biology和谁先用了中文“生物学”一词都无关紧要了,因为这只是语言的造词学问题,不是生物学的问题.但是否是亚里士多德,并没有确证的资料.