Module 1

Science 11 Living Systems: Concepts and Dynamics.

 Through this course, we shall embark on a journey that will give us a glimpse of the
intriguing concept that is Life.
 This course will take us from the energy and matter from our environment and how they
become part of the molecules that make up our smallest cells.
 We shall review in brief how cells organize into tissues, organs, and organisms.
 We shall then look at how organisms relate to each other as populations and ecosystems,
and how all of these affect us, human society, and how human society affects these in turn.
 Complex Systems Perspective - ethis perspective is both as old as antiquity and as new
as cutting-edge science of the 21st century.

Part 1: Living Systems in Oral Traditions

No written word
Biology
 Reflects our efforts to answer questions we humans have asked since time immemorial,
and how we figured out means of answering them, and the answers we have given.

How did our ancestors understand Living Systems during their time? And how
do we know them now?
 From the dawn of humanity, we humans have been dependent on our immediate
environment for all of our needs: for water, food, shelter, and clothing. An intimate
knowledge of our environment, gained through systematic observations, was a matter of
life and death for an individual and the tribe.
 It is equally important to share and pass on this knowledge to the next generation.

Ways of Knowledge Transmission

1. Orally - through telling of stories, chanting and music, and the creation of visual arts.
2. Experientially
 Through direct teaching of the younger generations in hunting and gathering
expeditions
 By experiencing living systems both physically and metaphorically in nature
walks, rituals, and dream journeys.

Special Roles in the living system

 Elders are esteemed for their knowledge.
 All have a role to play in the creation, recording, and teaching of knowledge for the
survival of the group.
1. The Storyteller – performs an important teaching function in the life of a tribe.
o Has ability to tell stories in a memorable, engaging way.
o stories, myths, and legends – stored and recorded means of documentation
especially of catastrophic events within the tribe.
 2. The Hunter – teach the knowledge of the environment without words.
 Has great knowledge of wildlife
 Has capability to read the slightest signs
 Has capability to create tools and weapons.
3. The Gatherer - Has knowledge of fruits, animals, and herbs and their use.
4. Farmer - has knowledge of the seasons and the signs of the wind and sky.
Myths, legends, folklore, art, - the tribe communicates their holistic appreciation of their place in
the living system:

The Natural World

 The land, plants, animals, seasons and cycles of nature has been a central tenet of their
lives and worldviews since the dawn of time.
 They understand the natural world as sophisticated and comprehensive… It is not a
separate entity but one, interconnected aspect of the whole.
 Interconnectedness equates to a moral responsibility to care for, live in harmony with, and
respect the natural world.

Indigenous Knowledge Systems and Practices (IKSP)

 Myths and legends and folklore – part of IKSP.
 Product of careful and methodologically sound observations of the natural world
 Traditional knowledge passed on through traditional means for many generations.
 Tested and re-tested for thousands of years in real life situations for survival and well-being.
 Affects not only our ancestors’ forms of art and oral literature but includes all aspects of life:
o from knowledge of geography and climate that allow them to “read” signs from nature
o the wind, animal behavior, and the appearance of indicator plants’ leaves and flowers
- to predict future environmental conditions as accurately as possible.

Inventions and Technologies as product of IKSP

 domestication of food
 storage and preparation
 herbal-based medicines; forms of clothing and transportation
 astronomy
 sustainable agricultural and industrial practices, etc.

Biocultural knowledge
 Rooted both in the natural environment and what is readily available, at the same time
grounded on the culture – values and norms -- of the people who hold it.
 applications which have been validated by indigenous knowledge systems as well as
modern scientific methods.
 The intimate knowledge of the interplay among elements in the local living systems.
 Case Study #1
A spiritual relationship with the land
Land
 is the source of life for indigenous people
 a gift from the creator that nourishes, supports and teaches.
Mother Earth
 IP consider this a parent and revere it
accordingly.
 Is the centre of the universe,
 core of their culture
 the origin of their identity as a people.
 The past (as the home of ancestors)
 The present (as provider of their material
needs),
 The future (as the legacy they hold in trust for
their children and grandchildren).

 For them, all of life – mountains, rivers, skies, animals, plants, insects, rocks, people – are
inseparably interconnected.

 Material and spiritual worlds are woven together in one complex web, all living things
imbued with a sacred meaning. This living sense of connectedness that grounds
indigenous peoples in the soil has all but disappeared among city dwellers – the cause of
much modern alienation and despair.

 The idea that the land can be owned, For IP, land is held collectively for the
that it can belong to someone even community (though competition between
when left unused, uncared for, or communities, and with outsiders, for rights of
uninhabited, is foreign to indigenous use, has sometimes led to conflict)
peoples.

Right now in this developed world, land

Indigenous law - humankind can never
is in the hands of private individuals,
be more than a trustee of the land, with a
corporate investors, or the state and collective responsibility to preserve it.
can be sold at the will of the owner.

Difference of Western world view to IP’s View of Nature

Western world - nature must be studied, dissected, and mastered and progress measured
by the ability to extract secrets and wealth from the Earth.
Indigenous people - land is not merely an economic resource.
 Their ancestral lands are literally the source of life
 Their distinct ways of life are developed and defined in relationship to the environment around
them.
 Indigenous people are people of the land.
 Many thinks that have no sense of territory because they do not necessarily physically
demarcate their lands.
 They know the extent of their lands, and they know how the land, water, and other resources
need to be shared.
 They understand only too well that to harm the land is to destroy ourselves, since we are
part of the same organism.
Case Study #1

The Penan of rural Brunei have great regard for the forest. This is manifested in their
perceptions of their forest environment, especially their prevailing ‘Molong’ concept of natural
resource conservation. ‘Molong’ gives the Penan a sense of caring and stewardship over their
forest resources. This involves responsible and moderate use of forests, so that they will
continue to be sustaining for future generations.

Greed has no place among the Penans. In practice, this means that when they harvest a clump
of sago or rattan, they use only the mature stems, and leave the young shoots for harvesting in
a few years time.

Penans also greatly respect and protect the diptercorp trees which produce the seeds that the
wild boar eat. They do not pollute the rivers because they also know that wild boars eat the
plants that grow by the river banks. They also let the boar get their share of the sago trees and
protect the acorn-producing trees which the boars also love.

The Penans have a great fear of tree-fellers who cut the trees indiscriminately in their jungle
because they are afraid that the disturbance will decrease their food supply. The forest seems
to be everything to the Penans. They feel an affinity with it and are thankful for its supply of
staple foods, building materials, medicines and raw materials for their handicraft. The forest is
their world and they live in harmony with it and so guard it tenaciously.

Until the last few decades, the Kedayans, another rural people of Brunei, have survived by
carefully utilising forest, land and wildlife for their livelihood. Through their day-to-day activities
of agriculture and hunting, they utilised and extracted forest resources to produce food and
manufacture materials for their consumption and tools for their survival activities. They have
been practising this way of life through many generations, using a complex and highly adaptive
system, such as cultivation of hill and swamp rice. To cultivate their staple food, rice, they used
different agricultural techniques, both shifting and permanent, depending on the different types
of padi (such as, tugal, paya, hambur, tanam) they were growing.

Well into the 20th century, the Kedayans were traditionally shifting agriculturists, felling,
burning and planting hill padi in successive hillsides in succeeding years. An example of areas
subjected to this method of rice cultivation is the very rural parts of Temburong, such as
Kampong Piasaw-Piasaw. Today, a large part of Temburong is still covered with forest –
evidence that the Kedayans have not over-exploited or misused their forest environments. In
short, it has been their harmonizing and systematic methods of using their environments
(particularly land and forests) that have enabled them to practice similar economic activities
through many generations to produce food and manufacture materials, not only for themselves
but also to sell the surplus to non-agricultural people in the country.
 Case Study #2
Natural Remedies and Medicines
Indigenous societies - classify soils, climate, plant and animal species and recognize their
special characteristics.
 They have words for plants and insects that have not yet been identified by the world’s
botanists and entomologists.
 Use 3000 different species of plant to control fertility alone
 Of the estimated 250,000 to 500,000 plant species in the world, more than 85% are
found in environments that are their traditional homes.
Indigenous Medicines – leads nearly 75% of 121 plant-derived prescription drugs used
worldwide.
 It is locally available, culturally acceptable, and cheaper than imported drugs.
 Thus, many countries realize its potential.
 Some scientists now believe that indigenous knowledge may help them to discover
important new cures for diseases such as AIDS and cancer.
 this traditional knowledge could revolutionize the world of medicine.

Hanunoo people of the Philippines - distinguish 1600 plant species in their forest, 400 more
than scientists working in the same area.
of indigenous people.
Kallaywayas (Bolivia) - make use of 600 medicinal herbs.
Southeast Asia - employ as many as 6500 plants for drugs. Almost all trees and many plants
have a place in medicinal lore.

Case Study #2
Medicinal Plants in India

Indigenous people work on body and mind together to help cure illness. Medicinal plants are
used to treat the spiritual origins of disease as well as the physical symptoms. The vast
knowledge of such plants is now beginning to be acknowledged by the rest of the world. So is
the role played by indigenous people as custodians of the world’s genetic heritage.

A botanical survey of India revealed that tribal peoples of the north-east use plant drugs to
cure fevers, bronchitis, blood and skin diseases, eye infections, lung and spleen ulcers,
diabetes, and high blood pressure. Knowledge of their use is passed on by the ‘vaiyas’ - Indian
herbal medicine doctors.

The Kameng and Lohit peoples in Arunachal Pradesh crush a bulk of Fritillaria cirrhosa to a
paste to relieve muscle pains. Fritillaria plant has a chemical similar to cocaine which relieve
muscle pain.

Growing evidence of plant-based contraception is available among many tribal peoples.

Worldwide, over 3000 plants are employed for contraceptive use. Karjat tribal area of
Maharashtra, near the west coast of India, a native herb taken twice a year is said to be
effective.
The Karjat study concludes that traditional health practices can provide up to half of local
primary health needs. Enlightened health-care workers are beginning to re-introduce traditional
plant remedies where allopathic drugs have become common-place. Properly studied and
recorded, this traditional knowledge could revolutionize the world of medicine

Case Study #3
Sustainable Resource Management
Industrial world - facing an ecological crisis.
 Industrial economists could learn from indigenous people but they call IP’s economy as
primitive and their technology as “Stone Age”
 Most governments assume they can benefit only from salaried employment.
Traditional ways of life - Have proven to be highly durable.

 Hunting and fishing - allowed the Inuit to survive in the Arctic

 Nomadic pastoralism - provides a livelihood for people in the arid Sahelian region of
Africa
 Shifting cultivation - sustained hundreds of distinct cultures in the fragile ecosystem in
the Amazon and the forests of South-east Asia
o Non-indigenous people have not been able to survive in these extreme
conditions without destroying ecosystem’s balance.

Sustainability - The key to this success.

Indigenous people
 Utilize resources available without depleting them.
 They use their intimate knowledge of plants, soils, animals, climate, and seasons, not
to exploit nature but to co-exist alongside it.
 This involves:
o careful management
o control of population
o the use of small quantities but a wide diversity of plants and animals
o small surpluses
o minimum wastage.
 Plants provide food, medicines, pesticides, poisons, building materials; animals provide
meat, clothes, string, implements, oil.

Indigenous knowledge of nature - ensured the survival of many people in fragile habitats.
 A knowledge centered not on exploitation but on the harmony of the natural world.
 Indigenous cultures also help to protect the natural world from destruction through
religion and rituals.
 Animals are commonly held in respect and their numbers maintained, often through
careful management.
  Buddhist religion in India, for example, have survived many droughts because they will
not kill an animal or a tree. They breed cattle selectively, monitor the feeding of their
camels, and live on milk, yogurt and a few cultivated crops.
 Many people have developed a detailed understanding of animal behavior. Those living
in tropical forests, for example, recognize that where two different ecological zones
meet, the hunting is more productive. Many even grow crops or trees to attract certain
animals and increase their numbers.

Case Study #3
The Karen of Thailand
Shifting cultivation - (sometimes called ‘slash and burn’) is a sustainable economic system
that need not harm the environment.
 It is the most commonly practiced system among indigenous people of Asia and lowland
Latin America,
 Provides them with a high degree of economic independence and cultural integrity.
 Given sufficient land and low population density, it is a highly successful way of using
the forest.
 The Karen of Thailand practice this system.

The economy of the Karen people is based almost exclusively on subsistence dry rice
production. An area is cleared of trees, undergrowth is burned, rice planted and later
harvested. Each year a new site is chosen and the cycle takes seven years to return to the site
first cleared. The system permits regeneration of the forest and thin tropical soils, and does not
expose the steep slopes to heavy rains, which would eventually wash away the soil in a fixed-
field system.

Money has virtually no place in a Karen community. If a village has enough food it is
prosperous. When villagers say “we have enough rice”, it means not simply that they will
survive, but that they have everything they need. If, however, shifting cultivation is unable to
provide for the entire needs of a village, the people grow chilli or bamboo shoots, or they may
collect and sell honey or other forest produce. Nearly all the income raised is used to buy rice.

Case Study #4
Sustainable Social Relationships
Social cohesion - key to survival for many indigenous cultures.
 Food gathering and hunting depend on mutual support and co-operation, and
disharmony within a part of the group is dangerous to the whole.
 In many cultures men and women have developed complementary.
 Political decisions are arrived at by consensus in many cultures
 Social arrangements that benefit the entire community have often been incorporated into
indigenous cultural traditions.
Marriage - is an integral part of the social system – political, economic, and spiritual – in many
indigenous societies.
 in Thailand, a Hmong groom must pay a high dowry but, in turn, the wife becomes a
member of the husband’s clan under the direct authority of the household.
  Marriage can also ensure political stability for the community (by regulating exchange
between groups), and continuing harmony with the spirit world.
 For essentially religious reasons, marriage may be prohibited between a man and
woman of the same kin group while in other societies it can only take place within the kin
group.
 The notion of marriage as a relationship founded only on the bond of romantic love is
rarely, if ever, seen in traditional societies.

Nuclear family - is a rare concept.

 A complex interweaving of lineage, clan, and family connections means that most
individuals are related to each other – tradition that fosters the sense of belonging to the
group, and of the need to share.
 Even decisions about having a child are, in some societies, controlled by laws, helping to
keep the population stable.
o In Melanesia, children are sometimes adopted to rebalance the size of families.

Physical architecture of a village - frequently reflects the social architecture of the people.
 For example, among the highlanders of West Papua (Irian Jaya) the chief’s home is
separated from the other houses to emphasise the social hierarchy.
 By contrast, the Karen of Thailand, who have a high degree of household autonomy
and social equality have no village centre and all live in similar houses.

Case Study 4.1

Maori of Aotearoa (New Zealand)

The Maori established a system of justice with a highly developed oratory, but no codified set of
laws, courts, and judges. When the British imposed their own legal system on New Zealand, the
rules took no account of Maori culture.

Traditional Maori justice was based both on the material and the spiritual worlds; redress for
minor offences was determined by the community, more serious ones by the elders or chiefs.

Punishment would be exacted by a transfer of goods known as ‘utu’, or satisfaction, to the

injured party. Persistent theft or murder, however, was punishable by ‘muru’, or plunder, but
only after full and formal discussion with reference to the true, or customary principles. Other
offenders might receive a beating, the withdrawal of community assistance, or, worst of all,
banishment.

In some respects, there are similarities between traditional Maori law and that imported by the
British. But the similarities ended with matters of the spirit world.

Chiefs with spiritual power could use it to conserve parts of the land for a feast. Access to the
land was prohibited and violation would anger the spirits. Strangers unwittingly entering such
areas would force the community to exact compensation, or even kill the intruder, in order to
avoid being punished themselves by the spirits. Respect for the spirit world was fundamental
to Maori society, but fell outside the comprehension of the British legal system.

Case Study 4.2

 Papua New Guinea

World wars have torn societies apart, but not all societies are so destroyed by conflict.
Within some indigenous communities, conflict is regulated by customary law. Rather than
starting a war, aggression is normally channelled into a ritualised process of war-making and
long-term destruction is minimal.

Hostilities between groups are a part of the cycle of events encompassing long periods of peace
and enmity. War is just one aspect of cultural life. The idea of annihilating the other group is
absent; indeed, the Tsembaga and Mae Enga are known as the peoples who marry their
enemies. War is a means by which the individual and the group find their identity, and is largely
ceremonial.

War may be precipitated by theft, poaching, or – most serious – the killing of someone else’s pig
– or long-standing disputes over territory and resources may create permanent hostilities.

The Big Man, the non-hereditary chief, may try to avoid war by negotiating compensation or an
exchange of gifts, but he cannot impose a decision.

individuals do not take justice into their own hands because an unresolved dispute entails
obligations for the whole group.

But even on the point of war there is always a ritual means of stepping back from open
confrontation. Anger can be channelled into a ‘nothing fight’, a competition of insults and
shouting; or else it may lead to a real fight, with blows exchanged and sometimes even serious
casualities.

After a war, a lengthy process of peace-making begins. Gifts, ceremonies, and marriages
establish links and obligations between the parties.

TYPE OF IK EXAMPLE IK COMMERCIAL UTILIZATION

The Hoodia plant is a case in the successful commercialization of traditional knowledge of the
San people of South Africa. Its active ingredient for appetite suppression was patented by a
South Africa-based research institute in coordination with the San people, and is now being
used to help patients with obesity.

Medicinal Plants

1. The DOH approved ten medicinal plants used in Philippine Traditional Medicine after
undergoing clinical studies. This blogsite for registered nurses identifies the plants and how to
use them.

2. The book “The Best 100 Philippine Medicinal Plants Jaime Z. Galvez Tan and Isidro Sia
(2014)” presents 100 medicinal plants that are traditionally used for different ailments. The link
connects to a slideshow of a number of those plants.
3. This research article by Xin-zhuan Su and Miller (2015) details the discovery of artemisinin,
extracted from an herb identified by ancient Chinese healing texts, for the treatment of Malaria.
This discovery led to a Nobel Prize in 2015.

Traditional health practices

Suob is a Philippine Traditional practice used during pregnancy and postnatal care. This site
explains the process and materials used for Suob. Suob is similar to steaming and mother-
roasting practices in other SEA cultures, for which there is already some published research
(read only the background of the study)

Traditional Knowledge on genetics

Philippine cultural concepts have some implications to genetic counseling. These concepts,
identified by Abad et al (2014) include namamana, lihi, sumpa, kaloob ng Diyos, among others.

Traditional Knowledge and Food Security

This web news article (Coates, 2015) mentions the need to revive old farming practices and
traditional crop varieties in order to ensure food security: Traditional knowledge the key to food
security: academics say.

Biodiversity management

1. Araral (2008), in his article What can institutional analysis tell us about long lived societies?
The case of the 2000 year old Ifugao society. (in p. 17) relates how traditional rice cultivation
practices by the Ifugao require the use of different rice varieties for several reasons. This is a
means by which biodiversity in rice is conserved.

2. Traditional rice cultivation practices of the B’laan, T’boli, and Subanen indigenous
communities maintain and protect biodiversity in the area. “The B’laan ethnic group of the south
has more than 100 varieties of rice and the T’boli group has 160 known rice varieties. To further
exemplify the type of rice varieties, Sumingit (2005) presents details of the characteristics of at
least 38 varieties of rice among the Subanen seed keepers.”

Sustainable Resource Management

Tebtebba Foundation (2010) relate traditional forest practices of the Ifugao, Masadiit people of
the Northern Luzon, indigenous peoples of Abra, communities in the Mt. Province, and the
Talaandig of Mindanao as examples of how indigenous peoples take care to maintain their
resources for the future generations.

Threats to Living Systems

1. Threats to rice terrace ecosystem: Araral (2008) p. 23 narrates how the introduction of
modern rice farming practices lead to threats to rice terraces stability.

2. Traditional knowledge of extreme events were able to guide communities in Simeulue Island
to seek safety from a tsunami in 2004.
 Part 2: Living Systems from Antiquity to the Renaissance
Holistic worldview
“That the biosphere consists of nothing but wholes that are both partly autonomous and partly
dependent upon or subsidiary to greater wholes.”
 It was not only the indigenous cultural communities who subscribed to this.
The earliest material evidence in civilizations that used the written word
 Societies kept track of their livestock and grains, made bread, wine, and cheese
 Recorded astronomical data in order to keep time and predict the weather.
*Heavenly bodies were still attributed to gods so the myths are still strong.
Priestly Class
 The human connection to the gods
 Sole interpreters of the gods’ desires
 Had exclusive access to the stored knowledge and authorized to interpret them.
 Knowledge was in their hands so they controlled much political power, including the
surplus production.

The Rise of Literacy and Literate Cultures

 During this era, invention of the written word and its relationship to knowledge
production, transmission, and storage has prevailed.

Literate Cultures Oral cultures

The storyteller was the keeper of
Knowledge was stored and transmitted knowledge.
through the:

 clay tablets of the Sumerians

 papyrus scrolls of the Egyptians Literacy
 the bamboo, bone or wood of the early  Paved the way for expansion of
East Asians collective knowledge beyond the
 the animal hide of the Mayans Storytellers’ collective memories,
 the wax tablets of the Romans however well-developed those
 the parchment that pervaded most of memories were.
medieval Europe
 the paper that held the records of the  Allowed for the development of more
Chinese empire and copies of the complicated trains of logic, of more
Qur’an. abstraction and thus analytical
knowledge, reflection and
introspection, which were very difficult
to keep track of in story, song, or art.
 2.1
Sumerians and their Knowledge of Biology (4500 – 1750 BCE)
*Sumerians

 Their knowledge was kept in clay tablets

written in cuneiform.
 The Sumerians were faithful in their
recording of the medical lore of their time,
particularly in the treatment of disease.
 The use of herbs and animal material as
materia medica, dentistry, endocrinology,
histology, health and sanitation, among
many other subjects.

*Sumerian Belief System

 Encompassed both empirical (experiential) and the magical, for example, in the
treatment of disease.
 Some diseases were attributed to demon possession, and it was believed that the
sacrifice of animals would cure this possession through the transmission of the demon.

Historians of Science
 Argue that these early attempts at explaining causes can be considered scientific.

“While this may seem laughable in light of

today’s learning, the “demon” idea really was
scientifically sound. In the absence of a
scientific canon, all ancient civilizations
(Serafini, 2013) sought to fathom the workings of the universe
in some other manner. Very often, they
attributed commonplace events to demons,
witches, and so forth… They were
speculating in a theoretical manner, and the
demon supposition was at least an attempt to
explain the transmission of illness.”

2.2.
 Greek Philosophers and their Theories (800 – 300 BCE)
Greek Philosophers Similarities with ancient and indigenous
people:
 According to the History of Biology, the
beginnings of abstract scientific thought  There has been an *exposition of their
can be traced from them. *ontology and *epistemology, something
 Their transcripts of lectures are being that has been similarly present in ancient
transmitted through the years by and indigenous (oral) knowledge but not
translators and scribes from the Roman described in an abstracted and detailed
times, Islamic translators and scribes, manner.
and the Christian monks and learned
men.  Their methods are similar to that used
 Noted for the treatises that eloquently ancients and indigenous people in a way
explain their observations, hypotheses, they use their experience, meditation,
and conclusions about the world and and learned intuition in trying to
Man’s place in it. understand what they believe is the
nature of things.
 Their works also show in detail the
 Thus said, there is only little actual
methods by which they obtained these experimentation aside from the course of
insights. healing and surgery. These studies in
Greek philosophical inquiry natural sciences were much utilized in
 It resonated with the most important practical ventures such as medicine,
questions of human existence: What astronomy, and engineering.
is Man? What is the world?
 These men of learning were not
connected to the priesthood but
rather engaged to the political
powers of the time.

2.3
 Medieval Europe and the Golden Age of the Islamic Civilization
Medieval European society
 Commonly characterized as feudal and
hierarchical.
 In those agrarian societies where surplus
was few, the production of food and of
goods used in the local communities are the
primary concern.
 The business of seeking and using
knowledge was relegated to a select few
who knew how to read and write.
 Knowledge and its interpretation were
proscribed (forbidden) by a ruling class.
 The Monarchies and the Church, in
particular, were very powerful.
 In early Medieval Europe, the monastic
schools (monks) were important in terms of
education, governance, and practical
applications of astronomy and medicine.

The Church
 Had great reach in terms of territory and ideological
influence.
 It was the sole interpreter of the Holy Texts
 The arbiter (judge) of the appropriate knowledge and
use of knowledge
 Responsible for its flock not only in this life but also the
next.
 Thus, individuals, philosophies, and discoveries had to
pass through the censure (expression of strong
disapproval or harsh criticism) of the Church.
 What did not conform to the erstwhile (former) view of
Truth were regarded as heresy
 Those who tried to explain miracles and other
matters of faith faced harsh punishment.
 However, outside of the Church’s purview (scope of
influence) 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 thru

exchanges in the Silk Road led to the transmission of the
combined knowledge from the Arabic, Byzantine, Persian and
(Kreis, 2004) Indian cultural traditions from the Golden Age of the Islamic
Civilization in the 12th century onwards.
 European scholars and scribes were exposed to very
different ways that the history of the Earth, natural sciences,
and philosophy were understood outside of the constraints of
the Catholic Church.
 Students in the 12th century were eager for
knowledge and sought it out with enthusiasm.
 They read the Latin classics, analyzed the texts of
Roman law, they read and commented on the works of
the Church Fathers.
 The most advanced scholars traveled to Spain to get
these new sources of information because they knew
that the Muslims of Islamic civilization had great
(Kreis,
storehouses of knowledge.
 Others went to Constantinople to obtain translations
of Greek manuscripts.
 In the end, these scholars renewed western
2004)
knowledge of Greek science and philosophy with
additional takeaways from of Arabic mathematics and
medicine.

Islamic scientists and mathematicians

Whitney (2004)  Developed criticisms of Greek assertions
 Refined the theories of the classical
philosophers to conform to current
empirical information
 Modified Aristotelian ideas
 Invented Algebra and Trigonometry as
new fields of mathematics.
 improved on Indian numeral system to
include the zero, in what we now know as
the Arabic number system

Democratization of education
 A resurgence (rising again) of interest in gaining knowledge in Europe helped in
advancing the creation of centers of learning outside the monasteries: the University.
 While not the first universities in the world, these early European institutions of
learning were open to scholars, mainly male feudal lords those who can afford the high
fees, but who are neither clerics nor monks.
 This level of democratization of education came with a challenge: throughout Europe,
traditional authority was questioned and the new scholars embraced the notion that
humanity could be improved not only through prayer and good works, but
through rational change.

2.4.
 The European Enlightenment: The hypothetico-deductive method and
democratizing knowledge
Aristotelian thought

 the dominant view for a millennium in the West.

Aristotle’s “Great Chain of Being”

 The major organizing principle and foundation of the emerging science of biology
until the 18th century.
 16th – 17th century - only the Aristotelian worldview was taught in all the leading
universities of the time.
 Mid- 17th century - the arguments of Descartes proved to be most convincing in the
European continent.

 Cartesian metaphysics Agnostic, materialistic epistemology in Science –

 Mechanistic worldviews began as train of reasoning deeply grounded in
 Duality between matter seemingly disparate (different) threads of
and mind methodological skepticism (approach that
 Cartesian scrutinizes all knowledge claims to with the goal of
hypotheticodeductive sorting out true from false) and an inherent
methodology assumption of the existence of God.

Became accepted by the community of scholars at the time.

 The zeitgeist (the general intellectual, moral, and cultural climate of an era. “Zeit” -
time; “Geist” – spirit) of the era is change and progress.

Cartesian metaphysics
 Theology + skepticism – important grounding of the worldview.
 Aristotelian concepts of Logic and intuition.
 Changing the. Argument from, “What is true? “ to “Of what can I be certain?”
 Anthropocentrism – Human from God as guarantor of truth.

Mechanistic perception of living systems

States that all matter is simply particles interacting with each other so, all phenomena can
be explained by mechanisms.

Duality of. Matter and the Mind

Mind – aside from matter (body). What God and the angels are made of.
Humans – only entities with matter and the mind. (Dualism)

Reductionist
 There’s no essential nature but only a system of moving particles.
  Nature of things may be elucidated even in natural settings (experiment)
 All intuition can be treated through experimentation.
 All mechanisms can be explained through math.
 Even questions regarding quality may be reduced to quantity. (Quality of life
measured in survey methods, for instance)

Cartesian worldview
This is a turning point that paved the way to acceptance of Newtonian Worldview and also...
Hypothetico-Deductive Method – Scientific method that we use until today.

18th century
 Brought about a spate (large number/amount; sudden outburst) of different, divergent
and conflicting theories on the origins and purposes of living systems.

 increasing tolerance for “How old is our planet?”

questioning long- Questions on age of the earth - a subject
established dogma broached (opened up (a subject) for discussion)
 discovery of fossils by the exposure to non-Christian doctrine as well
 openness to test theories as archeological discoveries, were debated.
by experimentation.

Evolution of living things was

considered Experiments on the Generation of
Insects
 Written by Francesco Redi in the
late 17th century (who at that time
was the court physician to the Grand
Duke of Tuscany)

Transmutation of Life
 Theory raised Lamarck in the
early 1800s.
 Conversion of one chemical
element into another.
 Supports the idea of evolution -
the main argument being that
species change as individuals
related to their environment
 Hypodeductico Method – methodology with analytical power of hypothesizing underlying
mechanisms behind a phenomena and a means of verifying these hypothesis.
Enlightenment Era – saw the first encyclopedia.

Advances during this era:

Advances in optics

 Allowed the visualization and discovery of

microscopic entities
 Paving the way for the study of anatomy in greater Developments after these theories:
detail.  New ideas more freely discussed
Advances in Chemistry  Hypotheses on phenomena and their
underlying mechanisms were tested
 Allowed for analytical studies of phlogiston (and not only based on the train of logic and
purified to what we know now as oxygen gas) reasoning, but based on actual, physical
 To look into Enzymes – proteins which used to be experimentation.
interpreted as a metaphysical vital substance that
animated living organisms.
Thenceforth, the understanding of mechanisms of living
systems of today has gained independence of the need to
employ spiritual and magical causes.

Part 3 Living Systems in the 19th and 20th Century

3.1 Reductionist Science and the growth of Biology

Hypothetico-deductive method
 Materialist, mechanistic, and reductionist philosophy which analyses a larger system
by breaking it down into pieces and determining the connections between the parts.
 As the scientific method gained acceptance and eventual dominance.
 Reductive study of organisms, alongside the development of specialized equipment,
afforded more and more powerful means for analysis

The elegance of classical experiments of the time, with the method of controlling
conditions in order to minimize variables, brings into focus the definitive (done or reached
decisively and with authority) relationships among two variables, highlighting a direct
relationship between a given cause and a given effect.

Biology
 Because the scientists had the capacity to new theories, this field has grown, and its
benefits spread greatly through medicine, food, and agriculture, among others.
 Used to be called, “Natural History”
 Not until the 18th century that the term, “Biology” was coined and branched into
subdisciplines Anatomy, Microbiology, Genetics, Taxonomy, Cell Biology, Embryology,
Biochemistry, Physiology, and Molecular Biology.
 Study of living things and their vital processes. The field deals with all the
physicochemical aspects of life.

Did you know?

Organism
Chemistry developed after
Biology.

macromolecules to Units
smaller molecules that Organ
have physiological
Xray effects. Of
With its increase in analytical
Analysis
power, it has become possible for
the chemical composition of cells
to become an object of study. Tissue
Cell to its
organelles
 16th to 17th centuries
With the increased exposure of the Europeans to the different environments of their
colonies increased their in interest in collecting, cataloguing, and studying different kinds
of organisms.
Darwin published his theory of evolution during this period

18th century

Scientific expeditions were conducted by trained naturalists.

19th century

Ecology was established.

mid-20th century
the concept of ecosystems emerged

20th century
Gains of reductionist biology forms the
context of biology taught in HS classes.

History of Biology
Two factors leading to great leap of knowledge
1. Creative mind – perceptive and original. Able to discard pre-existing notions to create a
new hypothesis.
2. Technological ability – to test the hypotheses and create experiments.
Cell

 Discovered due to these two factors

 Even before, many minds are thinking and curious about the structure of the cell.
However, It was not until the discovery of optical instruments have been invented
that formulating a hypothesis became possible.
 The cell theory explains how parts of animal and plant cells are organized.
Gregor Mendel’s Inheritance and Heredity

 Did not gain recognition as much as it does now until technological advancements let to
the discovery of chromosomes.
 Instruments that made Biology Move Forward from being described as “Descriptive
Science”
1. Electron Microscope
2. Ultracentrifuge
3. Automated DNA sequencing machines.

History 1: The Early Heritage

 History of biology doesn’t have a specific date as to when it commenced. However, it
can be considered that it can be traced before the humans learned to write and keep
records.
Threshold of Human survival:

 Ability to distinguish non-poisonous plants

 Knowledge of the predators’ dangerous habit.
Ways of Living

 Establishment of Agricultural System

 Domestication of animals
1.1 Earliest Biological Records
Dominated by beliefs of supernaturals and demons so they focused on this rather than the
natural world.
Biological practices among Assyrians and Babylonians

 Cultivated plants
 Carvings depicting vet med
 Date palm reproduces sexually by taking the pollen from the male plant to fertilize
female plants
 Male flower of the date palm was mentioned article of commerce on a business contract
during the Hammurabi code.
 Papyri related to medical subjects even containing anatomical description.
 Importance of the heart.
Biological knowledge of Egyptians

 Papyri and artifacts related to medicine

 Mummies – preservative properties
 Plant necklaces – medicinal properties
 Ebers papyrus – one of the oldest known medical texts.
Biological knowledge of Chinese

 Fu Xi, Shennong, and Huangdi – 3 emperors who possessed medical knowledge.

 Shennong – powers of medicinal plants and described soybean
 Huangdi neijing – earliest known written medical record in China.
 Silkworm to produce silk for commerce
  Biological control
 Entomophagous (insect-eating) ant – they employed this to kill insects that bore
into trees.
Biological knowledge of Indians

 Science of agriculture
 Mohenjo-daro (somewhere in Pakistan) – seeds of wheat and barley
 Fruits and veggies and cotton
 Also used plants for medicinal properties
 Document containing 960 medicinal plants and info in science was found.

1.2 Greco-Roman World

Mystical attitudes began to change.
 Rational thought – greatest contributions to Science.
 Every event has a cause and effect.
 Causality – scientific observations.
 Natural law governs the universe comprehended by observation and deduction.
 Established the science of Biology.
Theories about humankind and the origin of life
 Thales of Miletus – “physis” – creative force maintained by the universe.
o All living things are made of water
 Anaximander – apeiron
o hot and cold
 Almaceon
 Hippocratic school
o Bodies are made up of blood, black bile, phlegm, and yellow bile
o sanguine, melancholy, phlegmatic, or choleric if these 4 did not achieve
balance
o Imbalance in the humours led to disease

1.3 Limits of mechanistic and reductionist paradigms

 Cartesian and Newtonian science led to increase of abstract and practical scientific
knowledge.
 Creation of tools elevated humans’ ability to analyze things around him.
 Energy has gone beyond human and animal power
 With machines powered by coal, electricity, petroleum.
 Rational skepticism – allowed scientific communities to avoid data which are not
backed up and proven by experimentation.
 Cartesian framework – increased analytical power and ability to control conditions
o Became a useful tool for industrial and economic growth
o Employs industrial practices which are successful in bringing out outcomes
 Being focused on the end more than the means affected environment’s
sustainability
 And eventually has led to the environmental crises we face today
 Cartesian Science – believed that the whole can be analyzed by its parts, no matter
how small.
  Systems Science – living systems cannot be understood by analysis but by looking
at the bigger picture.
 Growth of the living systems can be determined by its effort of finding ways to
mitigate the environmental crises.
 Reductionist Science empowered us by proposing concepts and tools for analysis of
the living system.
 However, we need new perspective and new tools to make sense of the whole.

Summary:
Natures and Origins of Life:
 From indigenous and traditional ways – myths, legends, orality for knowledge
transmission
 Western Enlightenment paradigms – literacy and written works changed the content
of knowledge obtained.
 Abstraction and philosophical reasoning
 Complex systems perspective
o Technology has developed.
o Reliance on mechanical means extended humans’ senses to verify information
o This changed their relationship to nature
o Advances led to deeper understanding of discrete (individual or separate)
processes of nature
o They had a larger capacity to manipulate the environment
o Loss of balance and reciprocity – led to environmental crises
o Present day environmental consciousness – holistic to mechanistic and
back again
o Create and refine models to understand the nature
o Increased conceptual knowledge of how we fit to these living systems
should be coupled with increased consciousness, respect, care, and
recognition for the living system we are part of.

 Present - consider our increased capacities to influence the environment

 Past - learn from the lessons of the past
 Future - work towards our common future.