SCI 11 | Module 1

• Aristotle's enduring thoughts:

  • Adaptation of organisms to their habits and habitats
  • Nature is parsimonious
  • Unified organization
  • Homology
  • General structures appear before specialized ones
• Practical Applications and Limitations of Greek philosophy:

  • Limited experimentation, mostly in the context of healing and surgery
  • Contributions applied to practical fields like medicine, astronomy, and engineering
• Medieval Europe and the Golden Age of the Islamic Civilization:

  • Medieval Europe was hierarchical, focused on farming and local goods
  • Knowledge limited to those who could read and write, controlled by Monarchies and the Church
  • Practical skills like metallurgy and engineering thrived outside Church control
• Exchange with the East and Islamic Golden Age:

  • Europe connected with the East through trade, Crusades, and colonization
  • Transfer of knowledge from Arabic, Byzantine, Persian, and Indian cultures
  • European scholars exposed to different ways of understanding Earth, sciences, and philosophy
• Knowledge Seekers and Expansion:

  • Scholars in the 12th century sought knowledge from diverse sources
  • Studied Latin classics, Roman law, and Church works
  • Resurgence of Greek science and philosophy due to exposure to Islamic civilization
• Emergence of Universities and Challenges:

  • Universities emerged as centres of learning
  • Open to scholars, mostly wealthy males not monks or clerics
  • Expansion of education came with challenges - questioning traditional authority
• Rational Thinking and Improvement:

  • Scholars believed rational thinking could improve humanity
  • Combining rationality with prayer and good deeds
• The European Enlightenment:

  • The hypothetico-deductive method and democratizing knowledge
  • Aspect of Aristotelian Worldview (16th-17th century) vs Cartesian Worldview (mid-17th century)
  • View of Reality: Hierarchical vs Mechanistic
  • Methodology: Empiricism, observation vs Hypothetico-deductive reasoning
  • Role of God: Integral to the natural order vs God as the creator and sustainer of laws
• Francesco Redi: Spontaneous Generation

  Transmutation of Life: Lamarck in the early 1800s

  • Species change over time due to individuals adapting to their environment
• Living systems in the 19th and 20th century:

  • Reductionist Science and the Growth of Biology
  • Development of Biology Disciplines
  • Exploring New Environments and Discovering Evolution
  • Emergence of Ecology
  • The Emergence of Environmental Science
  • Limits of mechanistic and reductionist paradigms
• The problem with Cartesian science:

  • Singular focus on desired outcomes caused unforeseen consequences to the environment and human societies
  • Utilitarian view of nature contributing to environmental problems today
• The study of living systems:

  • Scientists studying living systems to understand and fix environmental issues
  • Living systems are more complex than previously thought
  • Need for new tools and ways of thinking to find solutions
• Reductionist Science and the Growth of Biology

  • Reductionist : Breaking Down Big Systems
  • This approach became dominant and advanced our knowledge of organisms
• Exploring New Environments and Discovering Evolution

  • 16th and 17th centuries: European exploration and learning from colonies
  • Interest in diverse plants and animals from different regions
  • Charles Darwin's theory of evolution in the 19th century
  • Expansion of scientific expeditions to study species diversity
  • Emergence of Ecology: Studying interactions among living things and their surroundings
• The Emergence of Environmental Science

  Late 19th century: Focus on ecosystems and energy flows

  Mid-20th century: Systems ecology and understanding matter and energy in nature

  Addressing environmental threats: "The Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson in 1962

  Formation of Environmental Science: Integrating biology, ecology, geology, chemistry, ethics, and social issues
• Development of Biology Disciplines

  • Biology's Origins: Natural History
  • Transition to a formal field in the 18th century
  • In-depth exploration of living things (Microbiology, Anatomy, Taxonomy, etc.)
• During the 18th century

  • widespread sense of change and progress.
  • brought a variety of different and sometimes conflicting ideas about where living things came from and why they exist.
  • People began asking questions about how old the Earth is
• View of Reality:

  Aristotelian: Great Chain of Being

  Cartesian: Universe as a Machine
• Method of Learning:

  Aristotelian: Empiricism

  Cartesian: Hypothetic-Deductive Reasoning
• Role of God:

  Aristotelian: Natural Order

  Cartesian: God as creator and sustainer of laws