ancient history pt 3

Question 1

aristotle summary

Answer 1

born in Macedonia, father was a physician (died), went to Platos academy but left when he wasnt named successor, studied biology in Lesbos, fled revolution and returned to Macedonia, tutored Alexander the great, returned to Athens and established, fled Athens and died in exile

Question 2

who was aristotles teacher

Answer 2

plato- had no interest in natural world only abstract ideas and theology

Question 3

ernst mayr

Answer 3

evolutionary biologist who accused plato of impeding progress of biology for over 2000 because of his anti-evolutionary influence on Aristotle

Question 4

platos theory of universals

Answer 4

changeless, eternal, ideal forms

- objects in our world are imperfect reflecitons of these prototypes

Question 5

essentialist vs population thinking

Answer 5

essentialist (Plato): ideal form is reality, variation is an illusion
population (modern bio): variation is the reality, ideal forms are an illusion

Question 6

teleological explanation

Answer 6

plato believed in intended purposes (divinely-inspired)

• everything was created by God with a rational plan in mind
• harmful to the development of biology

Question 7

aristotles writings

Answer 7

1/4 of his total surviving writings

• interested mainly in zoology, mentions 580 animals
• dissector of sea creatures

Question 8

aristotles modification of platos idealism

Answer 8

forms are idaes and they are in the world not outside it

• potentiality + form = actually
• matter is potentiality, form gives matter reality

Question 9

aristotles reproduction

Answer 9

eidos (idea) found in semen
- fully cooked
catamenia (potential) in menstural blood
- half cooked

Question 10

aristotles scale of nature

Answer 10

heirarchy of organisms that differ in respect to form dominance

• ranked animals in 1 dimension
• heaven = pure form and no potential

Question 11

natural groups of organisms

Answer 11

groups whose members have correlated attributes

- attributes inherited from some common ancestor and correlate with other things because of relatedness

Question 12

aristotles anatomy/physiology

Answer 12

thought that anatomy should be comparitive

• differentiated b/w fish and whales, described crayfish, insects and invertebrates
• food is cooked in the gut, heart is organ of soul/intelligence, brain cools blood and produces mucous

Question 13

aristotles conception of nature

Answer 13

1. had to invoke God to complete understanding of the world
2. inspired purpose
3. scale of nature: heirarchy of form dominance
4. geocentric: earth as center of universe
5. crude physics of movement to natural places
   - stones fell to earth/smoke rises to heaven