The Ancient World Pt 2 Flashcards
Socrates, Plato and Aristotle represented what?
A shift away from natural curiosity, toward more human centred and theological interests
How did Socrates, Plato and Aristotle all relate?
Socrates (c. 470–399 BC) - Mentor of Plato
Plato (c. 427–347 BC) - Student of Socrates
Aristotle (384–322 BC) - Student of Plato
Aristotle was the most influential philosopher and scientist in history, when was he alive? He was born during the life of who?
384-322 BC
Hippocrates and Dimocritus
Summary of Aristotles Life
Where was he born?
Who was his father?
When and why did he go to Athens?
What did he study?
Why did he leave Lesbos and what did he do when he left?
macedonia
His father was a Asclepian physician
To learn philosophy at Platos academy
Studied marine biology
Fled due to revolution, where he Tutored Alexander the Great
When did Aristotle return to Athens and what did he do?
334 BC, he established his own school, the Lyceum which was a one man University versed in many subjects including Biology, physics, and philosophy
why did Aristotle have to flee Athens? What was his fate?
he was suspected of impiety (wanted to avoid fate of Socrates)
died in exle on the island of Chalcis
What were Platos ideas that were considered harmful to biology?
His abstract ideas (such as theory of universals) and his belief in theology. He had no interest in the natural world.
The evolutionary biologist and historian Ernst Mayr accused Plato of doing what?
impeding the progress of biology for over 2000 years because aspects of Platos philosophy were anti evolutionary
What are Platos theory of the universals?
In another dimension there are eternal ideal forms, objects on Earth are the imperfect reflections of these forms
What is the essentialist thinking of Plato and later Artistotle vs population thinking in modern biology?
Essentialist: the idea forms exist in another dimension/reality, our world is full of imperfect copies of these forms
Modern: All variation is what we see in front of us, there are no perfect copies
What was platos belief of Teleological explanations?
Explanation of things based on their intended, divinely inspired purposed, rather than based on their causes or origins.
What was Aristotle mainly interested in?
Zoology, mentions 580 animals, was also a keen observer and dissector of animals, especially sea and terrestrial animals.
How did Aristotle modify platos ideal forms?
He believed that forms are ideas, they are in the wold and not outside it. Matter is potentiality, form gives matter reality.
What was Aristotle’s view of livng things?
heavily teleological, like plato’s “nature does nothing without a purpose” the purpose of something was its “final cause”
what were Aristotle’s views of the laws which govern nature?
The laws are not in nature itself, they are imposed by divine intelligence
What was Aristotles Scale of Nature/Great Chain of Being? How did he rank positions?
How he depicted relationships between organisms
Ranked things according to form dominance (humans were at the top). His heiarchy was exclusive.
what are Aristotle’s systematics? (groups)
he never tried to establish a formal classification of things, but he understood that natural groups existed
What is Digression of Natural Groups (not aristotles thinking)?
Natural groups are those with members who have correlated attributes, some attributes of organisms lead to natural groups while others lead to unnatural groups
In the digression of natural groups, why do attributes lead to natural groups?
- Attributes that lead to natural groups are essential to the form of the organism
- Attributes that lead to natuual groups are correlated because they must occur together for functional interdependence
- Attributes that lead to natural groups are inherited by the same common ancestor
Aristotle thought anatomy should be what?
comparative, not evolutionary
What were the 5 categories of phenomena that explain organic function according to Aristotle?
- information processing
- metabolism
- temperature regulation
- inheritance
- embryogenesis
what view did Aristotle accept concerning human neuroanatomy?
he accepted the erroneous view of the early hippocratics that the brain cools the blood and produces mucus
what did Aristotle thing about the heart?
heart is the organ of soul and intelligence
Aristotle’s view on the gut
it is where Food is “cooked”
Aristotle’s conception of nature?
Geocentric
Everything has purpose
Form dominance
Physics- thought everything had natural place