Unit 4: Philosophy and history of pre evolution Flashcards
What is teleology ?
Any philosophical account that holds that final causes exist in nature, meaning that design and purpose govern nature
What is intelligent design ?
The idea that features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause, not an undirected process such as natural selection
What is creationism ?
The religious belief that humanity, life, the earth, and the universe are the creation of a supernatural being
What is the scale of nature and who was this created by ?
Aristotle - Scale to show species are permanent, perfect and do not evolve
What does the old testament state ?
That all organisms resulted from the direct actions of a creator
Who was the ‘father of modern taxonomy’ ?
Carl von Linne ‘Linnaeus’
What were Linnaeus’s 2 ideas ?
- Taxonomy
- Binomal nomenclature
What is taxonomy ?
A discipline concerned with finding, describing and naming species
What is binomial nomenclature ?
A name composed of 2 parts
Who was the ‘father of geology’ ?
James Hutton
What were James Huttons 3 ideas ?
- Gradualism
- The earth was ‘alive’ and not static
- Rocks were made up of ‘materials furnished from the ruins of former continents’
What is gradualism ?
Idea that profound change is the cumulative product of slow but continual processes
What is Lamarckism ?
Idea that an organism can pass on characteristics acquired during its lifetime
What is homology ?
A trait which is similar due to a shared common ancestor
What is morphology ?
The study of form, pure and simple, not of the evolutionary history of forms
