SCI 11: Module 1 Perspectives on Living Systems

• Systematic Observation - intimate knowledge of our environment, including the ability to observe and analyze the behavior of others.
• With the absence of writing, this knowledge was transmitted orally, through the telling of stories, chanting and music, and the creation of visual arts.
• Experientially - direct teaching of the younger generations in hunting and gathering expeditions.
• Elders - esteemed for their knowledge, the knowledgeable among them are required to perform special roles.
• Storyteller - has the ability to tell stories in a memorable, engaging way, and performs an important teaching function in the life of a tribe.
• Hunter - knowledge of wildlife, capacity to read the slightest of signs, capability to create tools and weapons, and teach the knowledge of environment without words.
• Gatherer - who has knowledge of fruits, animals, and herbs and their uses.
• Farmer - knowledge of the seasons and the signs of the wind and the sky.
• Indigenous Knowledge, Systems, and Practices (IKSP) - traditional knowledge passed on through traditional means for many generations.
• Biocultural Knowledge - knowledge that is rooted both in the natural environment and what is readily available, at the same time grounded on the culture-values and norms- of the people who hold it.


  The intimate knowledge of the interplay among elements in the local living systems give rise to many applications which have been validated by indigenous knowledge systems as well as modern scientific methods.
• The Priestly Class - human connection to the gods.


  sole interpreters of the god's desires, such that, they had exclusive access to the stored knowledge.
• Literacy allowed for the expansion of collective knowledge beyond the Storyteller's collective memories.
• The knowledge held by Sumerians was kept in clay tablets written in cuneiform.
• The Sumerian belief system encompassed both empirical and magical. (attribution to demon possession, animal sacrifice)
• In the absence of a scientific canon, all ancient civilizations sought to fathom the workings of the universe in some other manner.
• The history of Biology usually traces the beginnings of abstract scientific thought to the Greek Philosophers.
• Artistotle - most influential Greek thinker was born at the end of the Greek era.
• Aristotle - a student of Plato, and the teacher of Alexander the Great, was a philosopher whose works have been the backbone of philosophical studies from this era.
• Aristotle - first biologist in the Western tradition.
• Specialist - one who has a considerable body of experience in a practical field work; Generalist - one who has many different areas of study.
• Species - a breeding group of animals or plants that can breed and produce offsprings that could eventually reproduce.
• Species are fixed, immutable, and have always existed.
• Methods used by Philosophers:

  • Experience,
  • Meditation,
  • Learned intuition.
• The Monarchies and the Church were very powerful; the monastic schools were important in terms of education, governance, and practical applications of astronomy and medicine.
• The Church - sole interpreter of the Holy texts, and the arbiter of the appropriate knowledge and use of knowledge.
• A resurgence of interest in Europe helped in advancing the creation of centers of learning outside the monasteries: the University.
• Aristotle's "Great Chain of Being," as a classification system, was the major organizing principle and foundation of the emerging science of biology until the 18th century.


  The chain of being hierarchy has God at the top, above angels, which like him are entirely spirit, without material bodies, and hence unchangeable. Beneath them are humans, consisting both of spirit and matter; they change and die, and are thus essentially impermanent. Lower are animals and plants.
• Arguments of Descartes - proceed to be the most convincing in the European continent.
• The Experiments on the Generation of Insects, written by Francesco Redi in the late 17th century, served to disprove a once-held notion of the spontaneous generation of living things.
• Theory on the Transmutation of Life - argues for the evolution; main argument being that species change as individuals relate to their environment.
• Scientific Method - eventual dominance of the hypothetico-deductive method; analyses a larger system by breaking it down into pieces and determining the connections between the parts.
• The reductive study of organisms, alongside the development of specialized equipment. afforded more and more powerful means for analysis.
• The increase in exposure of the Europeans to the knowledge and the vastly different environments of their colonies led to the increase in interest in collecting, cataloging, and studying different kinds of organisms in different kinds of environments.
• The cartesian framework uses its analytical power and focus on how to control conditions to maximize gains, a useful tool for industrial and economic growth; a framework based on the idea that the mind and body are separate entities.
• With the creation of the written word, the compilation of knowledge changed not only in form but also in content.
• It is through written documents transmitted by ancient scribes and

  translators that we know of the great Greek Philosophers and their theories today.