The Ancient World Pt 2

Question 1

Socrates, Plato and Aristotle represented what?

Answer 1

A shift away from natural curiosity, toward more human centred and theological interests

Question 2

How did Socrates, Plato and Aristotle all relate?

Answer 2

Socrates (c. 470–399 BC) - Mentor of Plato
Plato (c. 427–347 BC) - Student of Socrates
Aristotle (384–322 BC) - Student of Plato

Question 3

Aristotle was the most influential philosopher and scientist in history, when was he alive? He was born during the life of who?

Answer 3

384-322 BC
Hippocrates and Dimocritus

Question 4

Summary of Aristotles Life
Where was he born?
Who was his father?
When and why did he go to Athens?
What did he study?
Why did he leave Lesbos and what did he do when he left?

Answer 4

macedonia
His father was a Asclepian physician
To learn philosophy at Platos academy
Studied marine biology
Fled due to revolution, where he Tutored Alexander the Great

Question 5

When did Aristotle return to Athens and what did he do?

Answer 5

334 BC, he established his own school, the Lyceum which was a one man University versed in many subjects including Biology, physics, and philosophy

Question 6

why did Aristotle have to flee Athens? What was his fate?

Answer 6

he was suspected of impiety (wanted to avoid fate of Socrates)

died in exle on the island of Chalcis

Question 7

What were Platos ideas that were considered harmful to biology?

Answer 7

His abstract ideas (such as theory of universals) and his belief in theology. He had no interest in the natural world.

Question 8

The evolutionary biologist and historian Ernst Mayr accused Plato of doing what?

Answer 8

impeding the progress of biology for over 2000 years because aspects of Platos philosophy were anti evolutionary

Question 9

What are Platos theory of the universals?

Answer 9

In another dimension there are eternal ideal forms, objects on Earth are the imperfect reflections of these forms

Question 10

What is the essentialist thinking of Plato and later Artistotle vs population thinking in modern biology?

Answer 10

Essentialist: the idea forms exist in another dimension/reality, our world is full of imperfect copies of these forms
Modern: All variation is what we see in front of us, there are no perfect copies

Question 11

What was platos belief of Teleological explanations?

Answer 11

Explanation of things based on their intended, divinely inspired purposed, rather than based on their causes or origins.

Question 12

What was Aristotle mainly interested in?

Answer 12

Zoology, mentions 580 animals, was also a keen observer and dissector of animals, especially sea and terrestrial animals.

Question 13

How did Aristotle modify platos ideal forms?

Answer 13

He believed that forms are ideas, they are in the wold and not outside it. Matter is potentiality, form gives matter reality.

Question 14

What was Aristotle’s view of livng things?

Answer 14

heavily teleological, like plato’s “nature does nothing without a purpose” the purpose of something was its “final cause”

Question 15

what were Aristotle’s views of the laws which govern nature?

Answer 15

The laws are not in nature itself, they are imposed by divine intelligence

Question 16

What was Aristotles Scale of Nature/Great Chain of Being? How did he rank positions?

Answer 16

How he depicted relationships between organisms
Ranked things according to form dominance (humans were at the top). His heiarchy was exclusive.

Question 17

what are Aristotle’s systematics? (groups)

Answer 17

he never tried to establish a formal classification of things, but he understood that natural groups existed

Question 18

What is Digression of Natural Groups (not aristotles thinking)?

Answer 18

Natural groups are those with members who have correlated attributes, some attributes of organisms lead to natural groups while others lead to unnatural groups

Question 19

In the digression of natural groups, why do attributes lead to natural groups?

Answer 19

• Attributes that lead to natural groups are essential to the form of the organism
• Attributes that lead to natuual groups are correlated because they must occur together for functional interdependence
• Attributes that lead to natural groups are inherited by the same common ancestor

Question 20

Aristotle thought anatomy should be what?

Answer 20

comparative, not evolutionary

Question 21

What were the 5 categories of phenomena that explain organic function according to Aristotle?

Answer 21

1. information processing
2. metabolism
3. temperature regulation
4. inheritance
5. embryogenesis

Question 22

what view did Aristotle accept concerning human neuroanatomy?

Answer 22

he accepted the erroneous view of the early hippocratics that the brain cools the blood and produces mucus

Question 23

what did Aristotle thing about the heart?

Answer 23

heart is the organ of soul and intelligence

Question 24

Aristotle’s view on the gut

Answer 24

it is where Food is “cooked”

Question 25

Aristotle's conception of nature?

Answer 25

Geocentric Everything has purpose Form dominance Physics- thought everything had natural place

Question 26

Conclusions on Aristotle

Answer 26

He was an inspiration to later biologists and he founded natural history as he had a stronger orientation to nature than Plato, but he was not rigorously natural.

Question 27

what did Aristotle's approach take from plato that is viewed negatively?

Answer 27

plato's Essentialism, he did not imagine any kind of evolutionary change

Question 28

What was The library and museum of alexandria and who ruled it?

Answer 28

Greek institution (in Egypt) and was ruled by Ptolemy

Question 29

The library possessed how many scrolls?

Answer 29

700,000

Question 30

the museum was more of what in the modern sense?

Answer 30

a university, it contained research labs, rooms for dissection (including humans), an observatory, a zoo, and a botanical garden, and large lecture halls

Question 31

who were Herophilus and Erasistratus? What are their dates?

Answer 31

were both physicians and anatomists at Alexandria Herephilus 330-260 BC Erasistratus 310-250 BC

Question 32

what were Herophilus and Erasistratus accused of?

Answer 32

performing vivisections on chriminals but this is not proven

Question 33

what was Herophilus and Erasistratus view of Blood? Why did they believe this?

Answer 33

blood was synthesized from food and is distributed in the veins, because of the hepatic portal vein.

Question 34

was was Herophilus and Erasistratus view on Pneuma (spirit) and muscle movement

Answer 34

Pneuma is replenished by respiration. Vital pneuma is carried by the arteries to the brain where it is converted to animal spirits, and then carried by hollow nerves to the muscles An inrush of animal spirits caused muscle movements

Question 35

Herophilus and Erasistratus view on veins and arteries?

Answer 35

they are dead end canals through which blood and pneuma seep into the tissue

Question 36

Herophilus believed the beating heart transmitted what? Was this belief common?

Answer 36

pulsations to the arteries; both veins and arteries carry blood, not commonly thought

Question 37

what was Erasistratus view on arteries?

Answer 37

that they have blood only when it seeps from the tissues into the arteries, this blocked the flow of pneuma and caused disease

Question 38

Roman Encyclopedism With Romes ascent in the Mediterranean region, science turned heavily towards what? What was the consequence of this?

Answer 38

Encyclopedism and away from independent scientific thought and experiment Romans did little to extend the science done by Greeks

Question 39

what were the two lives of Pliny the Elder? What were his dates?

Answer 39

AD 23-79 He lived one life as in service of roman society and the roman state( lawyer, civial administrator, millitary officer) the other in the service of scholarship (historian, encyclopedist).

Question 40

Pliny wrote what? Where did the work come from? Why was he important?

Answer 40

a 37 volume encyclopedia; NATURAL HISTORY. Culled from ancient authors, he claimed to have access to over 2000 works He included plenty of solid information and became a standard reference work for the next 1500 yrs

Question 41

what did Celsus do? What are his dates?

Answer 41

1st century AD he wrote a large encyclopedia of which only the portion on medicine (De medicina) survived

Question 42

What invention made Celsus works known? His work (De medicinia) was one of the first what?

Answer 42

Invention of printing in 1478 First medical book to be printed

Question 43

what did Celsus believe about the role of Physicians?

Answer 43

Following the hippocrates that surgeons should assist nature

Question 44

Who was Galen of Peramon and what were his dates?

Answer 44

AD 130-200 A Greek and one of the most influential medical writers of all time, physician, surgeon

Question 45

early in Galens career he was what?

Answer 45

a surgeon at the Gladiatorial school at Pergamon, learning practical medicine

Question 46

Why was Galen so important and who were some of Galens patients?

Answer 46

He was a very prestigious physician in Rome, favoured by and physician to Emperor Marcus Aurelius and his son Commodus

Question 47

what were other physicians view on Galen?

Answer 47

he was very unpopular, seen as contentious and quarrelsome, a "know it all"

Question 48

what was Glanes belief in religion?

Answer 48

he believed in one god although he was not a christian. he was fiercely opposed to atheistic materialism

Question 49

what was galens view of the human body?

Answer 49

highly teleological, similar to Aristotle and Plato

Question 50

what did Galen and the Hippocrates have in common?

Answer 50

He agreed with ethical practice in medicine. Galen believed that physicians should disdain money and seek wisdom

Question 51

how did Galen study anatomy? | ?

Answer 51

He took anatomical info from Alexandrian anatomists like Herophilus and Erasistratus He performed dissection of animals (dissections on humans was illegal at this time) inspection of patients with severe traumatic wounds, from his days as a gladiatoral physician examination of bones from destroyed tombs

Question 52

Galen's biological insights in his view how was the voice controlled? What idea did this support?

Answer 52

by laryngeal nerves that lead to the brain this supported the idea that the brain is the center of thought and reason

Question 53

what was Galens thoughts on Arteries? How did he come to this conclusion?

Answer 53

that they contain Blood not air through experimental results on animals

Question 54

Galens thoughts on the kidney?

Answer 54

The kidney makes urine, not the bladder

Question 55

what did Galen notice about the gut?

Answer 55

peristalsis

Question 56

what did galen do to study the spine?

Answer 56

cut it in different places and noted the loss of function when cutting ay different vertebrates 3-4 no respiration below 6 paralysis of thoracic muscles lower, paralysis of lower limbs, bladder and intestine

Question 57

Galens thoughts on blood circulation?

Answer 57

- Blood does not circulate, it moves from the site of synthesis (the liver from food) to the tissue and is distributed by venous blood to the tissues - Venous blood enters the atrial system through pores connecting left and right venticles - Arterial blood distributes pneuma

Question 58

what were Galens therapies? How did they compare with Hippocrates?

Answer 58

Galen was more of an interventionist He "balanced" the Humours with diet, bloodletting and purging he also performed surgery

Question 59

in terms of drugs what type did Galen favour?

Answer 59

complex drug mixtures, especially theriac, which was based on a poison antidote

Question 60

What is the use of complex drug mixtures (such as the ones Galen used) called?

Answer 60

polypharmacy

Question 61

why did Galens name endure?

Answer 61

- his works survived - his theology fit later christian and islamic views - A lot of his writings were encyclopedic

Question 62

What is the scientific legacy of the ancient world?

Answer 62

1. spirit of natural, rational thought and inquiry; beginnings of science 2. Natural history 3. Pragmatic, ethical medicine 4. Dogmatic adherence to ancient authorities such as Aristotle and Hippocrates 5. The first jobs or modern science were to assimilate ancient science and travel beyond or overthrow the most influential ancients

Question 63

Place the names of these 8 science guys in their historical order from oldest to most recent: Hippocrates, Galen, Thales, Bill Nye, Democritus, Pliny the Elder, Aristotle, Empedocles.

Answer 63

1. Thales 2. Empedocles 3. Democritus 4. Hippocrates 5. Aristotle 6. Pliny the Elder 7. Galen 8. Bill Nye (Oddly enough Democritus and Hippocrates were both born the same year and died the same year according the Wikipedia, so they're hard to rank)