Problem 1 Flashcards
How old is the earth
4.6 billion years old
What are the different stages of the history of the earth ?
- Time before the Cambrian explosion
- Paleozoic era
- Mesozoic era
- Cenozoic era
Cambrian explosion
Refers to the sudden appearance of animals that resemble those in current life
- -> “The beginning of life”
- -> started 542m years ago
Paleozoic era
540m - 250m
Emergence of fish, land, plants, insects
–> followed by a vanishing of 95% of the marine species + 70% of the terrestrial species
Mesozoic era
250m-66m
Age of dinosaurs + beginning of mammals, birds, flowers
–> ended with a massive extinction, giving way to an expansion of mammals
Cenozoic era
66m-now
Age of mammals
The emergence of humans
6-7m years ago: Class of bipeds were forced out of the jungle
2m years ago: Beginning of genus Homo (erectus, habilis)
200k years ago: Homo sapiens in Africa
50k years ago: Homo sapiens start to expand
Which factors led to the massive expansion of the Homo Sapiens ?
- Production of more advanced tools
- Development of language that is characterized by
a) productivity
b) semanticity
c) displacement
Neolithic revolution
Refers to the transition from a nomadic hunter-gatherer society to farming and settlement
–> 10.000 BCE
Fertile Crescent
Region on the middle east with a high level of civilization that included
a) Ancient Mesopotamia
b) Ancient Egypt
–> 3.000 BCE
Preliterate Civilization
Civilization before writing was invented
What are the characteristics of the preliterate civilization ?
- Knowledge is confined to “know-how” without theoretical understanding of the underlying principles
- Fluidity of knowledge
- Collection of myths and stories about the beginning of the universe (Animism)
Animism
Refers to the belief that objects and nature are inhabited by spirits with human like characteristics
Lindbergs view on the preliterate civilization
Myths + stories reinforce the values and attitudes of the community and fulfill the need humans have for explanatory principles
–> brings order, unity, meaning to the events around them
Tylors view on the preliterate civilization
Preliterates looked at the world like children and endowed everything with a nature analogous to their own
–> animism
Where did written language first appear ?
It appeared separately between 6.000 to 300 BCE in
a) Egypt
b) China
c) Sumer
d) America
–> it was preceded by protocol-writing
Writing systems were a combination of … ?
a) Pictograms
b) Phonograms
Pictograms
Pictures that resemble the persons, animals + objects they represent
–> proto-writing
Phonograms
Signs to represent sounds of the spoken language
–> then gradually replaced by phonemes + syllables
What is the main advantage of written records ?
They form an external memory, which allows an accumulation of knowledge
What were Socrates’ main concerns concerning written records ?
According to him, written records will make humans forgetful, because they will stop exercising their memory as they can rely on what is written down
Why are written records important to science ?
- Ability to build on existing insights
- Ability to avoid the pitfalls that hindered predecessors
- Written records provide the vases of the cumulative nature of science
EXTERNAL MEMORY
What fosters an easier reading acquisition ?
- When the language has a transparent relationship between spelling + sound
- Putting spaces between words (8th century)
Scholastic method
Study method in which students unquestioningly memories and recite text that are thought to convey unchanging truths
–> success depended more on the students perseverance than intelligence
NO CRITICAL THINKING
In which way were numbers represented originally ?
- One was always able to subitise
- Due to difficulty to discern more than 4 lines in a glance, the tallies were grouped
–> gouping occured in fives
Subitising
Distinguishing between 1,2 and 3 entities
Why is the number 5 so important + why is it used as a base ?
- Number 5 is the first entity that exceeds the perceptual limits
- Coincides with the number of fingers on a hand
- Gradually a separate symbol was used for 5 and multiple 5s
How did the Greeks represent numbers ?
600 BCE
By developing a written system for the numbers 1-24
- -> Alpha to omega
- -> used a 10 base structure similar to roman numerals