Evolution Before Darwin - MT3 - Part 1

Question 1

What is evolution?

Answer 1

It is heritable change in a population of species over generational time and the divergence of lineages from a common source
- common ancestor

Question 2

What is science?

Answer 2

It is a bunch of processes that require persuasion

Question 3

What does evolution involve? (3)

Answer 3

1. It is more than just elimination of invariable forms
   - genetic inheritance –> advantage vs disadvantage –> creative aspect of evolution
2. Change is open ended
3. Species are related by descent

Question 4

What does essentialism imply?

Answer 4

Fixed species characteristics

- everything is created by a divine will

Question 5

What does everyday experience show us?

Answer 5

Generational continuity

- not radical discontinuity

Question 6

What can lead us to the rejection of all science? (2)

Answer 6

1. Literal interpretation of religious texts

2. Belief in supernatural causations in this world

Question 7

What was natural theology?

Answer 7

It was a new term for the teleological interpretation of organismal function
- which goes back to ancient times

Question 8

Who was the most important figure in England?

Answer 8

William Paley

- author of Natural Theology (1802)

Question 9

What did Cuvier think fossils showed?

Answer 9

An abrupt change, rather than a gradual change in life

• the intermediate that he thought he should see he didnt
• he said extinct and a new origin of life was jerky process, not smooth

Question 10

What is the plenitude principle? (3)

Answer 10

1. All species that can exist, do exist
2. Creation was fully stocked from the beginning
3. Gaps in creation cannot exist

Question 11

What did may people fear about evolutionary thinking?

Answer 11

That it would cause moral and societal chaos, because it undercuts the credibility of the Bible as an infallible document and because it implies humans are mere animals that they might start beginning to act like them

Question 12

What happened later in the 19th century and into the 20th century?

Answer 12

Natural selection justifies social darwinism

• accepted evolution
• human society had winners and loser (just like natural selection)

Question 13

Social darwinism

Answer 13

The theory that individuals, groups and people are subject to the same darwinism laws of natural selection as plants and animals

Question 14

What did some people believe we started out as?

Answer 14

Mushrooms

• then we were starfish, then giraffes and now we are humans
• this was not true = misunderstanding

Question 15

What are most miss-understanding of our lineages come from?

Answer 15

Cladograms

Question 16

What did some people believe about species?

Answer 16

That 2 species can come from a common ancestor and then it mixes those 2 species
- eg) crocodile + ducks = crocoduck

Question 17

What can Linnaean hierarchies and natural groupings be viewed as?

Answer 17

Supporting evolution

- nesting hierarchies contain relationships

Question 18

What did Cuvier not believe in?

Answer 18

Evolution

Question 19

What is an example of similarity due to function?

Answer 19

Wings

• birds, fish, bats and butterflies
• different in structure but looks similar

Question 20

Homology

Answer 20

The state of having the same of similar relation, relative position or structure

Question 21

Analogy

Answer 21

A comparison between 2 things, typically for the purpose of explanation or clarification

Question 22

The sequence of fossil in the stratigraphical column and the reality of extinction

Answer 22

Older forms into younger form

- periodic catastrophic or new forms come along

Question 23

What is not accpeted today?

Answer 23

Spontaneous generation of organisms from amorphous beginnings, like nutrient broth

Question 24

Why would we not need to invoke the creation of an unchanging world?

Answer 24

If small organisms such as bacteria and protozoa can arise by spontaneous generation and then evolve into more complex forms

Question 25

What does the natural theory work against?

Answer 25

Evolution

Question 26

What does natural theory imply? (2)

Answer 26

1. A creator and a designer
   - works against evolution
2. Focusses on adaption and function which stimulated the growth of evolutionary thinking
   - focussed attention on function

Question 27

What are 2 examples of vestigial and inefficient structures?

Answer 27

1. Wisdom teeth
2. Laryngeal nerve
   - goes around the aorta

Question 28

How did the idea of change over time penetrate into European consciousness in a wide array of fields? (4)

Answer 28

1. The solar system formation and evolution
2. A solar system of time
   - exhaustion of the suns energy stores
3. Gradual geological changes over long periods of time
4. Similarities among words in Sanskrit, Latin and Greek suggested they were descended from a common language, not extinct
   - similar to a phylogenetic tree

Question 29

Nebular hypothesis

Answer 29

The theory that the solar system were developed from a primeval nebula