The Ancient World - MT1 - Part 5 Flashcards
What skill did Aristotle have but didnt use?
His ability to write
- he scribbled notes
Aristotle’s modification of Plato’s idealism
Forms are ideas and they are in the world, not outside it
What is the formula for actuality?
Potentiality + form
What is potentially?
Matter
What does form give?
Matter reality
What was Aristotle’s idea of reproduction?
Though there was an asymetery to what both male and female contributed
What is the form in reproduction?
Semen
Catamenia
Blood and other matter discharged from the uterus at menstruation
What is semen from strong men? And what does it create?
It is warm and it creates males
What is semen from weak men? And what does it create?
It is cold and it creates women
What was Aristotle’s view on living functions?
Nature does nothing without a purpose
- similar views to Plato
What does Aristotle’s scale of nature show?
Some kind of relationship between organisms
What was Aristotle’s systematics?
He never tried to establish a formal classification of things, but he understood that natural groups existed
- eg) vertebrates vs invertebrates
animals with blood vs animals without blood
What are natural groups?
Groups whose members have correlated attributes
Why do some attributes lead to natural groups and other lead to unnatural groups?
Attributes that lead to natural groups are inherited from the same common ancestor and are correlated with other things because of relatedness
- Attributes that do not lead to natural groupings are not inherited from the same common ancestor
What did Aristotle think about anatomy?
It should be comparative
- dissect a few animals and compare the insides
What did Aristotle think of the heart as an organ?
It was the organ of soul and intelligence
Where did Aristotle think food was “cooked”?
In the gut
- as well as fermentation
What were 3 of Aristotle’s conception of nature?
- Believed everything had a purpose
- We are all related in some sense
- Views of motion
How many scrolls were in Alexandria’s library at the time of Cleopatra?
700,000
Ptolemy
Ruler of Egypt
- eg) Cleopatra
What was the museum of Alexandria?
It was a university?
What did the museum of Alexandria contain? (6)
- Research labs
- Dissection rooms
- An observatory
- A zoo
- A botanical garden
- Large lecture halls
What did the observatory allow?
It allowed you to draw accurate maps and the movement of the planets throughout the year and how the moved through the sky
- it was a place for static figures
Who were Herophilus and Erasistratus?
Both were physicians and anatomists at Alexandria
- there writings did not survive
What were Herophilus and Erasistrarus accused of?
Performing vivisections on criminals
- this remains unproven
What was Herophilus and Erasistrarus’s view on anatomy and physiology? (2)
- If you dissect a human and looked at the small intestines, you would see it is highly vascularized
- You see the hepatic vein pick up food and take it to the liver where it turns into blood and gets distributed throughout the body
What is the body synthesized from?
Food and is distributed in the veins
How does vital pneuma work? (4)
- Replenished by respiration
- It is carried by the arteries to the brain
- Gets converted into animal spirits and carried by the hollow nerves to the muscles
- In the muscles the inrush of animal spirits causes muscle movement
What are veins and arteries?
Dead-end canals
- blood and pneuma seep into tissues
- capillaires dont connect them
What does Herophilus think of the heart?
The beating of the heart transmits pulsations to the arteries
- both veins and arteries carry blood
What does Erasistratus think of arteries?
They have blood only when it seeps from the tissues into the arteries
- blocks the ability of new blood
- -> this leads to the causation of illness
