Exam 2 Flashcards
(60 cards)
Compare Plato and Platonic Idealism to Aristotle and Analytic Empiricism
Plato & Platonic Idealism:
- fallen shadow of Ideal Truth
- cave
- Reason and reflection are king
Aristotle & Analytic Empiricism:
- observable experiences are king
- can find truth based on observations and reason
- the nature of essences and causes
List and describe reasons for the decline in science in the West during the Early Middle Ages
- most science treaties written in Greek were unavailable, leaving only simplified version
- De-urbanization reduced the scope of education
- scholars at the time were clergymen, who had little interest in science, but in theology
Explain the role of the Muslim culture in moving science forward in the Medieval Age
- golden age of Islam
- role of crusades: religious wars
- they played a role in translating the greek manuscripts to Arabic
- then Arabic to Latin
- universities evolved and taught secular positions and led to new infrastructure
List and describe reasons for the resurgence of scientific thought in the Medieval Age leading into the Renaissance
- Scholasticism: emphasized dialectical reasoning to extend knowledge by inference to resolve contradictions
- to harmonize christian tradition and ancient philosophy
A popular view today is that the Medieval Ages were characterized by junk/false science such as Alchemy and Astrology. Prepare a counter argument to this popular view using both Alchemy and Astrology.
Astrology led to the development of math. It helped explain the planets motion with surprising accuracy.
Alchemy launched modern chemistry with distillation, sublimation, crystallization, and pigments
What is natural theology? Be prepared to discuss two of the 5 arguments associated with the argument
Natural Theology: to attempt to define/prove God’s existence based solely from human reason and observation of natural world
1. The Argument of the Unmoved Mover: we see change all the time around us, something must be behind the change b/c it can’t change itself
2. The Teleological Argument: Things that don’t have intelligence behave predictably, therefore the patterns had to come from someone (God)
Identify the key contributions and ideas of Compte de Buffon as they relate to the evolution paradigm.
- organisms change over time as a result of a system of laws
- common ancestry, uniformitarianism
- life might not be fixed
Identify the key contributions and ideas of Georges Cuvier
as they relate to the evolution paradigm.
- interpreted fossil remains as species were extinct
- fossils found in old rock is simpler than found in young rock
- mass extinction
Identify the key contributions and ideas of Jean Baptiste de Lamarck as they relate to the evolution paradigm.
- environment modifies traits of individuals in ways that are passed on to their offspring
inheritance of the acquired characteristic
Identify the key contributions and ideas of Erasmus Darwin as they relate to the evolution paradigm.
- common ancestor
- competition and sexual selection can change species
Identify the key contributions and ideas of Charles Lyell as they relate to the evolution paradigm.
- principles of geology book (Darwin read over voyage)
- Darwin applies to life -> natural selection (environment determines if you die with trait)
- Earth constantly undergoing change
- uniformitarianism (continuous uniform process) & gradualism
Identify the key contributions and ideas of William Charles Wells as they relate to the evolution paradigm.
- noted differences in human race
- said it was because of adaptation to environment
List and describe the two main tenets of the pre-19th century science worldview or paradigm as proposed by John Ray, Sir Isaac Newton, and Robert Boyle and contrast the paradigm to the naturalistic paradigm which comes to dominate the scientific worldview since the 19th century. What were the contributions of James Hutton and Charles Lyell to this naturalistic paradigm?
2 main tenets:
1. nature is a law-bound system of matter and motion that have been put in place by God
2. nature is a habitation created for the use of edification of intelligent beings by an omnipotent, omniscient, benevolent God
Naturalistic paradigm:
Rejects God having to do with creation-> don’t evoke the super natural
Hutton: present is key to the past
Lyell: built on Hutton; uniformitarianism
William Whewell, J.W. Draper, and Alfred North Whitehead address a supposed conflict between religion and science. Articulate the views of each with regard to science and faith/religion and how they compare to one another.
William Whewell- creation points to a God; natural theology; uniformity/laws of nature
J.W. Draper- nature can prove everything and will win the war against faith; materialistic worldview
Alfred North Whitehead- end of materialism; nature can be seen as fine and benevolent work of a creator, we have power to understand it
Scientific discoveries sometimes are serendipitous. Explain this statement using the following examples:
a.William Beaumont & Alexis St. Martin
b.Phineas Gage
c.Wilder Penfield
serendipitous: discovering by chance in a beneficial way
a.William Beaumont & Alexis St. Martin
- got shot, had hole in side, led to discover digestion
b.Phineas Gage
- rod goes through head, went back to work and was unpleasant, Gage found that frontal lobe was involved with personality
c.Wilder Penfield
- was a surgeon who operated for epilepsy, fully conscious patient, labeled what parts of brain do what
Who did Newton have a major controversy with?
Leibniz
Which law(s) of motion deal with force?
All 3
Which scientists are credited with designing the first successful powered aircraft?
The Wright Brothers
How did Otto Lilienthal’s work with gliders contribute to the Wright Brothers’ success in powered flight?
His research on lift and wing design helped guide their experiments.
The Wright Brothers are credited with inventing the airplane, but flight history includes many other pioneers. Do you think the Wright Brothers deserve all the credit for the invention of powered flight? Why or why not?
No, they don’t deserve all of the credit. People like Cayley did tests on aerodynamics and fixed wing aircrafts. The wright Brothers didn’t start their development from rock bottom.
Describe the key idea behind the Big Bang theory
The universe began as a primeval atom and has been expanding ever since.
How did the discovery of cosmic microwave background radiation support the Big Bang theory over other competing theories of the universe’s origin?
It was thought of as leftover heat, supporting that the universe had a hot and dense beginning
How did the work of Edwin Hubble, particularly his observation that galaxies are moving away from us using redshift, influence the development and acceptance of the Big Bang theory? (SA)
Redshift implies galaxies move farther away and at a faster rate. This helped in the acceptance of the Big Bang Theory because it pointed to the Earth’s expansion, a key component in the theory
The line of rock that lies between the Paleocene and Cretaceous rock layers and is studied by paleontologists for clues leading to the extinction of dinosaurs is called the_____________
K-T Boundary
