ANT 205 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: James Ussher, Carl Linnaeus, Linnaean Taxonomy
Document Summary
Did not create evolutionary theory from scratch. Essentialism: life is changeless and consists of a limited number of fixed forms (essences) Variation explained as imperfect copying of the original plan of god. Estimated age of earth using literal interpretation of the bible. Everything in nature was created recently by god. Science: an empirical process that uses observation and experimentation to test hypotheses. Scientific method: observation, hypothesis, experiment, conclusion, publish. Theory: hypothesis tested repeatedly without being rejected. New discoveries challenge traditional ideas and jumpstart scientific investigation of nature. Discovery of new plant and animal species. Demonstrated empirically that the earth moves in an orbit around the sun. Noted that organisms changed over time in new environments. 18th and 19th centuries in western europe. Transportation systems (canals, etc) developed to accommodate industries. Knowledge of how the earth was constructed increased. Digging into the earth increased in order to build these methods of transportation. First to hypothesize about mechanisms of change.
