Lecture 2 Flashcards
What were all religions prior to Judaism?
Animistic and polytheistic.
What does animistic mean?
Abiotic factors such as mountains have personalities, feelings etc.
What does polytheistic mean?
Having multiple gods.
What were the three main traditions of the Ancient Greeks?
Natural history, philosophy (reason/logic) and biomedical (dissection).
What were the Ancient Greeks thoughts on evolution?
They didn’t think anything of evolution as they believed in a static world that had not and will not change.
What kind of people took the place of scientists?
Philosophers.
How did the Ancient Greeks explain phenomena?
In terms of matter and physical forces e.g. the elements.
What beliefs occurred in the first scientific revolution?
The acts of “creationism” are not products of an act of god but of spontaneous generation (the results of the generative power of nature).
Explain spontaneous generation
Things just spontaneously formed as a result of the interaction between elements.
What began to occur around the time Plato was around?
Greek philosophy began to explain things with mathematics, in particular, geometry.
What is the analogy that was used to explain things?
Life forms are like triangles. Triangles always add to 180 degrees and that always remains the same so life must be the same. Unchanging and never deviate from the form. A cat always remains a cat.
What are things like imperfections on organisms seen as in regards to the triangle analogy?
Imperfections and flaws. Development gone wrong.
What is the comparative method?
Comparing different organisms and grouping them together based on similar traits.
What did aristotle develop?
The “Ladder of Life” or The “Chain of Being.”
Explain the “Chain of Being”
It is an order of ranked organisms based on vitality (movement). Rocks etc. lay at the bottom and humans are at the top, above mammals.
Why was Aristotle’s contribution important?
He established natural history and evolution can only be inferred by reference to natural history.
What occurred in The Islamic Golden Age?
Aristotle was translated into Arabic, empiracle science and thoughts such as: “animals engage in struggles for existence” “environmental factors influence them so they must develop new traits to ensure survival” etc.
What occurred in The Dark Ages of Christian Domination?
The depression of intellectual stagnation, everything was explained by god and Aristotle’s “Chain of Being” was changed into involving God and angels.
What occurred in the Renaissance period?
Rejection of scholasticism for empiricism. Also that the sun is the centre of the universe.
Explain what happened and who was in The Age of Enlightenment?
The age of physics and Isaac Newton. People tried to explain everything in terms of physics.
What increased during this time?
Mechanisation, travel, voyages and diversity.
Name two things that arose in this era
Microscopes and the birth of histology.
What happened in the 18th century?
Biology came into its own, no longer dominated by physics.
Who is Buffon?
A great populariser, not an evolutionist but he father of evolutionism. Founder of biogeography and he: Accepted that earth’s history involved a long timescale and brought forward many evolutionary problems.
Explain Natural Theology
The study of the works of the creator such as plants for the sake of theology. It was seen as proof of the supreme being.
Who is Lamarck and what did he do?
Naturalist. Suggested the theory of transformation and the theory of acquired characteristics.
What is the theory of transformation?
The idea that organisms strive towards perfection and an ability to adjust to their enviornment.
What is the theory of acquired characteristics?
The idea that individuals pass on acquired characteristics.
What is Lamarck’s theory of evolution?
A graph of: Scale of organization and time. Nnew life forms are generated at the bottom and make their way to the top. No organisms go extinct, they just evolve into others.
Name some of the ideological problems in the 1800’s
The ‘argument from design’ found it increasingly harder to explain the occurrence of vestigial organs, diseases, parasites, pestilence and catastrophes.
What prevailed until the publication of ‘On the Origin’?
Natural Theology/Status Quo.
