Task 1 - Ancient Times Flashcards
What is the “Neolithic revolution” and when did it happen?
- > Transition from hunters & gatherers to farming and settlements
- > 10.000 BC
When did the mastery of fire occur?
No exact date is decided upon. Sources range from 1 Mio. years ago to 120.000 BC
What are aspects of a preliterate civilization?
- Able to make tools, fire and hunt
- Not a lot of concrete knowledge, more like a practical sense of how and when to do things
- Knowledge fluidity
- Animism
Explain the term “knowledge fluidity”.
When knowledge is not preserved and documented, it is limited to the present two generations. Information is communicated by word of mouth.
Development of written language was important because:
- It offered an opportunity to spread knowledge to larger audiences.
- It allows us to study past civilizations
- It promotes growth of the cortex
- It allows knowledge accumulation
When was (language specific) alphabetic writing developed?
~ 10.000 BC
What were the first cultures to use written language?
China (6.000 BC), Egypt (3200 BC), Sumer (3200 BC)
What is protowriting?
Using symbols that represent entire entities without linguistic information (pronouns, adverbs etc) connecting them.
What is the “Hindsight bias”?
We assume that ancient scientist knew more than they did. -> Failing to adapt the viewpoint of the philosophers of the time
What is the “Mathew Effect”?
Popularity of a person / scientist leads us to believe this individual.
When did we start to use spaces in sentences and why was it so helpful?
- > 8th century
- > Facilitates silent reading
What is the threshold for group size?
~150
What was a social obstacle for ancient science?
The fact that literacy was common mostly among religious leaders, which are conservatively-minded.
What is “subitizing”?
Between 35.000 and 20.000 BC counting was mostly done using differentiations between one, two and “many”.
Why did counting on the base of 5 seem functional?
- Perceptual limit of immediately telling apart how many tallies there are (IIII vs IIIII instead of IIII vs V)
- number of fingers on one hand
Our time measurement system to this day is based on …
…The Sumerian counting system (base 60)
Counting using a place-code was first used in…
India
The first school was opened in ____ by ____ and was called _____.
- 388 BC
- Plato
- Academy
Central aspects about Plato:
- Rationalism / Introspection
- > Truth comes from the inside and is based on rational thinking and not the influence from the outside world.
- > Humans have innate knowledge that can be uncovered through introspection
- liked by the church
- when bodies die, the soul lives on -> Dualism
- Brain: reasoning; Heart: Feelings/Sensation; Liver: Lust/Gut-feelings/Hunger
Central aspects about Aristotle
- Was a student of Plato
- Founded his own school after Plato’s death, due to different opinions
- Knowledge comes through careful observation and experimenting
- > Empiricism
- Not liked by the church
Central aspects about Socrates:
- Against writing things down
- Former teacher of Plato
- His knowledge was transcribed by Plato
What is the connection between the church and science during the dark ages?
- The dark ages began with the fall of the Roman Empire and were dominated by Germanic tribes.
- The church had control over the education system in this time
- The Catholic church promoted theological and literal knowledge and not critical thinking
