L48 Anthro 150A Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Scientific Revolution, Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, Essentialism
16 Sep 2016
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Science and evolution: darwin"s work built on ideas of other scholars, early explanations of life were philosophical or religious, prior to scientific revolution it was widely held that. Organisms could be ranked based on superiority of form. Earth was 6,000 years old: great chain of being. Linear ranking reinforced beliefs that some lifeforms were superior to others: essentialism: each organism has a true, ideal form. All others are slight deviation from best form. All creatures were created at once by god: scientific revolution. Opened the door for systemic study of the world. Galileo: the father of modern science : tested and supported heliocentric theory, discovered moons of jupiter. Francis bacon: father of scientific method : developed rules for observation and collection of data. Isaac newton: universal gravitation, 3 laws of motion. Carl linnaeus: compiled first formal classifications of living creatures, also believed in fixity of nature. All nature constructed by hand of god.
