The Ancient World - MT1 - Part 5

Question 1

What skill did Aristotle have but didnt use?

Answer 1

His ability to write

- he scribbled notes

Question 2

Aristotle’s modification of Plato’s idealism

Answer 2

Forms are ideas and they are in the world, not outside it

Question 3

What is the formula for actuality?

Answer 3

Potentiality + form

Question 4

What is potentially?

Answer 4

Matter

Question 5

What does form give?

Answer 5

Matter reality

Question 6

What was Aristotle’s idea of reproduction?

Answer 6

Though there was an asymetery to what both male and female contributed

Question 7

What is the form in reproduction?

Answer 7

Semen

Question 8

Catamenia

Answer 8

Blood and other matter discharged from the uterus at menstruation

Question 9

What is semen from strong men? And what does it create?

Answer 9

It is warm and it creates males

Question 10

What is semen from weak men? And what does it create?

Answer 10

It is cold and it creates women

Question 11

What was Aristotle’s view on living functions?

Answer 11

Nature does nothing without a purpose

- similar views to Plato

Question 12

What does Aristotle’s scale of nature show?

Answer 12

Some kind of relationship between organisms

Question 13

What was Aristotle’s systematics?

Answer 13

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

Question 14

What are natural groups?

Answer 14

Groups whose members have correlated attributes

Question 15

Why do some attributes lead to natural groups and other lead to unnatural groups?

Answer 15

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

Question 16

What did Aristotle think about anatomy?

Answer 16

It should be comparative

- dissect a few animals and compare the insides

Question 17

What did Aristotle think of the heart as an organ?

Answer 17

It was the organ of soul and intelligence

Question 18

Where did Aristotle think food was “cooked”?

Answer 18

In the gut

- as well as fermentation

Question 19

What were 3 of Aristotle’s conception of nature?

Answer 19

1. Believed everything had a purpose
2. We are all related in some sense
3. Views of motion

Question 20

How many scrolls were in Alexandria’s library at the time of Cleopatra?

Answer 20

700,000

Question 21

Ptolemy

Answer 21

Ruler of Egypt

- eg) Cleopatra

Question 22

What was the museum of Alexandria?

Answer 22

It was a university?

Question 23

What did the museum of Alexandria contain? (6)

Answer 23

1. Research labs
2. Dissection rooms
3. An observatory
4. A zoo
5. A botanical garden
6. Large lecture halls

Question 24

What did the observatory allow?

Answer 24

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

Question 25

Who were Herophilus and Erasistratus?

Answer 25

Both were physicians and anatomists at Alexandria

- there writings did not survive

Question 26

What were Herophilus and Erasistrarus accused of?

Answer 26

Performing vivisections on criminals

- this remains unproven

Question 27

What was Herophilus and Erasistrarus’s view on anatomy and physiology? (2)

Answer 27

1. If you dissect a human and looked at the small intestines, you would see it is highly vascularized
2. 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

Question 28

What is the body synthesized from?

Answer 28

Food and is distributed in the veins

Question 29

How does vital pneuma work? (4)

Answer 29

1. Replenished by respiration
2. It is carried by the arteries to the brain
3. Gets converted into animal spirits and carried by the hollow nerves to the muscles
4. In the muscles the inrush of animal spirits causes muscle movement

Question 30

What are veins and arteries?

Answer 30

Dead-end canals

• blood and pneuma seep into tissues
• capillaires dont connect them

Question 31

What does Herophilus think of the heart?

Answer 31

The beating of the heart transmits pulsations to the arteries
- both veins and arteries carry blood

Question 32

What does Erasistratus think of arteries?

Answer 32

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