Science 11

• Humans have depended on their immediate environment, and intimate knowledge was gained through systematic observation
• Ways of transmitting knowledge

  • Orally: telling stories, chanting, music
  • Experentially: direct teaching
• Elder


  Esteemed for their knowledge; required to perform special roles
• Storyteller


  Performs an important teaching function in the life of the tribe
• Hunter


  Has knowledge of wildlife, capacity to read signs, and capability to create tools
• Gatherer


  Has knowledge of fruits, animals, and herbs, as well as their uses
• Farmer


  Has knowledge of the seasons and the signs of the wind and sky
• Indigenous Knowledge, Systems, and Practices (IKSP)


  Traditional knowledge passed on through traditional means for many generations
• IKSP include


  • myths, legends, and folklore
• Biocultural knowledge


  Knowledge that is rooted both in the natural environment and the culture of the people
• The earliest material evidence in civilizations that used the written word showed that societies kept track of their livestock and grains, made bread, wine, and cheese, and recorded astronomical data to keep time and predict the weather.
• Heavenly bodies were attributed to the gods, and the priestly class were the sole interpreters of the gods' desires.
• They had exclusive access to knowledge
• Literacy allowed for the expansion of collective knowledge beyond the Storytellers' collective memories
• Examples of how literate cultures stored knowledge

  • Sumerians: clay tablets
  • Egyptians: papyrus scrolls
  • Early East Asians: bamboo, bone, wood
  • Mayans: animal hide
  • Romans: wax tablets
  • Medieval Europe: parchment
  • Chinese empire: paper
• Knowledge was kept in clay tablets and written in cuneiform
• Sumerian belief system - both empirical and magical
• Historians of Science argue that these early attempts at explaining causes can be considered scientific
• Greek philosophers as the beginnings of abstract scientific thought
• The legacy of Greek philosophical inquiry resonated with the most important questions of human existence
• Aristotle


  A student of Plato, and the teacher of Alexander the Great, was the most influential Greek thinker. He may be said to be the first biologist in the Western tradition, and a significant portion of his work was devoted to the study of living systems
• Aristotle's contributions


  • expounding on levels of organization ("the more and the less"), systematics or the relationship of species of plants and animals, reproduction, and embryology, among many others
  • concluded that species were fixed, immutable and that they have always existed
• Later Christian philosophers tried to integrate Genesis with Aristotle. They typically viewed each species as created by God in the beginning, in a hierarchical fashion from the inanimate, animate, to the spiritual beings as a "Great Chain of Being".
• The methods are similar to those used by ancients and indigenous people in that they use their experience, meditation, and learned intuition in trying to understand what they believe is the nature of things
• Knowledge and its interpretation were prescribed by a ruling class (Monarchies and the Church)
• Individuals, philosophies, and discoveries had to pass through the Church, as they are the sole interpreters of the Holy Texts and the arbiter of knowledge
• Outside of the Church's purview are the practical arts; and thus, metallurgy, navigation, agriculture, and engineering continued to flourish following the collapse of the Roman Empire
• The exposure of Europe to Near Eastern culture was inevitable, and this contact led to the transmission of the combined knowledge from the Arabic, Byzantine, Persian and Indian cultural traditions from the Golden Age of the Islamic Civilization in the 12th century onwards
• Islamic scientists and mathematicians developed criticisms of Greek assertions, refined and modified their theories and ideas, and invented mathematical fields
• Dominant view: Aristotelian thought
• 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.
• Descartes


  The Cartesian hypothetico-deductive methodology became accepted by the community of scholars at the time.
• 18th century: different, divergent, and conflicting theories on the origins and purposes of living systems
• Theories on the origins and purposes of living systems

  • Francesco Redi: Experiments on the Generations of Insects
  • Lamarck: Transmutation of Life
• It was through the scientific method that Biology (once known as natural history) branched into several sub-disciplines
• Units of analysis


  • organism
  • organ
  • tissue
  • cell
  • organelles
  • macromolecules
• Charles Darwin published his theory of evolution, and scientific expeditions were conducted by trained naturalists
• Developments in Biology


  • Late 19th century: Ecology was established
  • Mid 20th century: concept of ecosystems emerged
  • 1960s-70s: basis of systems ecology
• The Cartesian analytical framework has led to the use of industrial practices, but the singular focus on desired outcomes has led to many unforeseen consequences to the environment and to human societies
• It is this utilitarian view of Nature that has led to the environmental crises that we experience today