1st Semester Module 1 Science 11 (PDF)

Module 1 | PERSPECTIVES ON of life and death for an individual and LIVING SYSTEMS the tribe. It is equally important to share and pass on this knowledge to LIVING SYSTEMS IN ORAL the next g...

Module 1 | PERSPECTIVES ON of life and death for an individual and LIVING SYSTEMS the tribe. It is equally important to share and pass on this knowledge to LIVING SYSTEMS IN ORAL the next generation. TRADITIONS In your High School science With the absence of writing, classes, you have studied Biology this knowledge was transmitted orally, concepts and principles that operate through telling of stories, chanting and within the physicality and materiality of music, and the creation of visual arts. living systems. However, our It is also transmitted experientially, appreciation of living systems has not through direct teaching of the younger always been thus. Indeed, Biology generations in hunting and gathering reflects our efforts to answer questions expeditions, and by experiencing living we humans have asked since time systems both physically and immemorial, and how we figured out metaphorically in nature walks, rituals, means of answering them, and the and dream journeys. answers we have given. Questions such as: where have we come from? Elders are esteemed for their what is our relationship to the world knowledge, and the knowledgeable around us? Answers to these among them are required to perform questions guide how we perceive special roles. The Storyteller, with the ourselves and our place in the world, ability to tell stories in a memorable, and how we should act in accordance engaging way, performs an important to the order that we see in our teaching function in the life of a tribe; environment. for stories, myths, and legends are how experiences of the tribe, Let us go back to the age when especially of catastrophic events, are learning something new entailed more recorded and stored. The Hunter, than opening a book or connecting to whose knowledge of wildlife, capacity the Internet. When there were no to read the slightest of signs, and the books, in fact, there was no written capability to create tools and weapons, word. Let us go back to the tribes of teach the knowledge of the our ancestors, to times long, long ago, environment without words; the same and ask: How did our ancestors holds true for the Gatherer, who has understand Living Systems during knowledge of fruits, animals, and their time? And how do we know them herbs and their uses; and the Farmer, now? who has knowledge of the seasons and the signs of the wind and sky. All From the dawn of humanity, we have a role to play in the creation, humans have been dependent on our recording, and teaching of knowledge immediate environment for all our for the survival of the group. needs: for water, food, shelter, and clothing. An intimate knowledge of our In these myths, legends, environment, gained through folklore, art, and in all their activities, systematic observations, was a matter the tribe communicates their holistic 1|SCI EN CE 11 appreciation of their place in the living to domestication of food, storage, and system: preparation; herbal-based medicines; forms of clothing and transportation; “The natural world - the land, astronomy; sustainable agricultural plants, animals, seasons and cycles of and industrial practices, etc. nature - has been a central tenet of their lives and worldviews since the The intimate knowledge of the dawn of time. Their understanding of interplay among elements in the local the natural world is sophisticated and living systems give rise to many comprehensive… (It) is not viewed as applications which have been a separate entity but one, validated by indigenous knowledge interconnected aspect of the whole. systems as well as modern scientific This interconnectedness equates to a methods. This knowledge is called moral responsibility to care for, live in biocultural knowledge: knowledge that harmony with, and respect the natural is rooted both in the natural world” (Joseph, 2016). environment and what is readily available, at the same time grounded  INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE, on the culture—values and norms—of SYSTEMS, AND PRACTICES the people who hold it. Myths and legends and folklore are a part of what we call Indigenous LIVING SYSTEMS FROM Knowledge Systems and Practices ANTIQUITY TO THE (IKSP). These are traditional RENNAISSANCE knowledge passed on through It was not only in indigenous traditional means for many cultural communities that subscribed generations. A product of careful and to the holistic worldview. The earliest methodologically sound observations material evidence in civilizations that of the natural world, IKSPs have been used the written word showed that tested and re-tested for thousands of societies kept track of their livestock years in the most rigorous real-life and grains, made bread, wine, and laboratories for survival and well-being. cheese, and recorded astronomical data to keep time and predict the This knowledge affects not weather. However, the need for myths only their forms of art and oral and legends were still strong, as literature but includes all aspects of life: heavenly bodies were still attributed to from knowledge of geography and gods. The human connection to the climate that allow them to “read” signs gods – the Priestly Class – were the from nature—the wind, animal sole interpreters of the gods’ desires, behavior, and the appearance of such that, they had exclusive access indicator plants’ leaves and flowers— to the stored knowledge, and they to predict future environmental were the only ones authorized to conditions as accurately as any interpret them. Thus, knowledge was barometer or weather gauge. This has in the hands of the priests, and they allowed them to create many controlled much political power, inventions and technologies that relate including the surplus production. 2|SCI EN CE 11  The Sumerian belief system What is noteworthy is the encompassed both empirical and the invention of the written word and its magical, for example, in the treatment relationship to knowledge production, of disease. Some diseases were transmission, and storage. Whereas in attributed to demon possession, and it oral cultures, the Storyteller was the was believed that the sacrifice of keeper of knowledge, in literate animals would cure this possession cultures, knowledge was stored and through the transmission of the demon thus transmitted through the clay from the afflicted person to the lamb tablets of the Sumerians, the papyrus as a sign of compassion to the family. scrolls of the Egyptians, the bamboo, Historians of Science argue that these bone or wood of the early East Asians, early attempts at explaining causes the animal hide of the Mayans, the can be considered scientific, to wit: wax tablets of the Romans, the parchment that pervaded most of “While this may seem medieval Europe, and the paper that laughable in light of today’s learning, held the records of the Chinese the “demon” idea really was empire and copies of the Qur’an. scientifically sound – in this sense: In the absence of a scientific canon, all It follows that literacy allowed ancient civilizations sought to fathom for the expansion of collective the workings of the universe in some knowledge beyond the Storytellers’ other manner. Very often, they collective memories, however well- attributed commonplace events to developed those memories were. It demons, witches, and so forth… They allowed for the development of more were speculating in a theoretical complicated trains of logic, of more manner, and the demon supposition abstraction and thus analytical was at least an attempt to explain the knowledge, reflection, and transmission of illness” (Serafini, introspection, which were very difficult 2013). to keep track of in story, song, or art.  GREEK PHILOSOPHERS AND  SUMERIANS AND THEIR THEIR THEORIES (800 – 300 KNOWLEDGE OF BIOLOGY BCE) (4500 – 1750 BCE) The History of Biology usually The knowledge held by the traces the beginnings of abstract Sumerians was kept in clay tablets scientific thought to the Greek written in cuneiform. The Sumerians Philosophers. The written transcripts were faithful in their recording of the of the lectures of these learned men medical lore of their time, particularly being transmitted through the years by in the treatment of disease, the use of translators and scribes from the herbs and animal material as materia Roman times, then transmitted by the medica, dentistry, endocrinology, Islamic translators and scribes, and histology, health, and sanitation, the Christian monks and learned men. among many other subjects. The reasons for expanding this effort through the centuries is clear: the 3|SCI EN CE 11 legacy of Greek philosophical inquiry one who has a considerable body of resonated with the most important experience in practical fieldwork – and questions of human existence: What is the generalist -- one who knows many Man? What is the world? These men different areas of study, when he wrote: of learning were not connected to the priesthood but rather affianced to the In all study and investigation, political powers of the time. be it exalted or mundane, there appear to be two types of proficiency: The Greek philosophers were one is that of exact, scientific noted for the treatises that eloquently knowledge while the other is a explain not only their observations, generalist’s understanding. hypotheses, and conclusions about the world and Man’s place in it, their Indeed, Aristotle practiced both works also show in detail the methods specialist and generalist modes of by which they obtained these insights. study, and has clearly and eloquently There has, therefore, been an outlined his reasoning in his lectures. exposition of their ontology and He is credited for expounding on epistemology, something that has levels of organization (“the more and been similarly present in ancient and the less”), systematics or the indigenous (oral) knowledge but not relationship of species of plants and described in an abstracted and animals, reproduction, and embryology, detailed manner. In the Box below, we among many others. He was a very read about Aristotle and his lectures avid observer of life, particularly of about his research in various topics in fishes. Based on his close study of living systems. We find that his animals, Aristotle defined a species: a curiosity about the natural world, and breeding group of particular animals or his methods of studying them, still hold plants that can breed and produce true to this day, even though his offspring that eventually could theories do not. reproduce. He then concluded that species were fixed, immutable, and  BOX: ARISTOTLE that they have always existed. Later The most influential Greek thinker Christian philosophers tried to was born at the end the Greek era. integrate Genesis with Aristotle. They Aristotle (324-322 BC), a student of typically viewed each species as Plato, and the teacher of Alexander created by God in the beginning, in a the Great, was a philosopher whose hierarchical fashion from the inanimate, works have been the backbone of animate, to the spiritual beings as a philosophical studies from this era until “Great Chain of Being”. the European Renaissance. He may be said to be the first biologist in the The methods used by these Western tradition, and a significant philosophers are similar to that used portion of his work devoted to the ancients and indigenous people in that study of living systems. In the study of they use their experience, meditation, living systems, he explained the and learned intuition in trying to distinction between the specialist -- understand what they believe is the 4|SCI EN CE 11 nature of things. Thus said, there is and thus, metallurgy, navigation, little actual experimentation other than agriculture, and engineering continued what is done while healing and surgery. to flourish following the collapse of the These studies in natural sciences Roman Empire. were much utilized in practical ventures such as medicine, astronomy, The exposure of Europe to and engineering. Near Eastern culture was inevitable,  MEDIEVAL EUROPE AND THE due first to trade via the Silk Road, GOLDEN AGE OF THE ISLAMIC then the Crusades, and then the CIVILIZATION colonial expansion. This contact led to Medieval European society is the transmission of the combined commonly characterized as feudal and knowledge from the Arabic, Byzantine, hierarchical. In those agrarian Persian and Indian cultural traditions societies where surplus was few, most from the Golden Age of the Islamic of the population was concerned in the Civilization in the 12th century production of food and of goods that onwards. Thus, European scholars were used in the local communities. and scribes were exposed to very The business of seeking and using different ways that the history of the knowledge was relegated to a select Earth, natural sciences, and few who knew how to read and write. philosophy were understood outside of Thus, knowledge and its interpretation the constraints of the Catholic Church. were prescribed by a ruling class; the Monarchies and the Church were very “Students in the 12th century powerful. In early Medieval Europe, were eager for knowledge and sought the monastic schools were important it out with enthusiasm. They read the in terms of education, governance, Latin classics, analyzed the texts of and practical applications of Roman law, they read and commented astronomy and medicine. on the works of the Church Fathers. The most advanced scholars knew The Church had great reach in that the Muslims of Islamic civilization terms of territory and ideological had great storehouses of knowledge, influence. It was the sole interpreter of so they traveled to Spain to tap these the Holy Texts, and the arbiter of the new sources of information. Others appropriate knowledge and use of went to Constantinople to obtain knowledge, as it was responsible for translations of Greek manuscripts. In its flock not only in this life but also the the end, these scholars renewed next. Thus, individuals, philosophies, western knowledge of Greek science and discoveries had to pass through and philosophy and to this added the the censure of the Church. That which treasures of Arabic mathematics and did not conform to the erstwhile view medicine” (Kreis, 2004). of Truth were regarded as heresy, and those who tried to explain miracles In many instances, Islamic and other matters of faith faced harsh scientists and mathematicians punishment. However, outside of the developed criticisms of Greek Church’s purview are the practical arts; assertions, refined the theories of the 5|SCI EN CE 11 classical philosophers to conform to the time. However, this changed in current empirical information, mid- 17th century, when the significantly modified Aristotelian ideas, arguments of Descartes proved to be invented Algebra and Trigonometry as most convincing in the European new fields of mathematics, and continent. Cartesian metaphysics, the improved on Indian numeral system to mechanistic worldview, the duality include the zero, in what we now know between matter and mind, and the as the Arabic number system (Whitney, Cartesian hypothetico-deductive 2004, p. 12). methodology became accepted by the community of scholars at the time. It A resurgence of interest in may sound surprising to many gaining knowledge in Europe helped in modern-day scientists that the advancing the creation of centers of beginnings of the current agnostic, learning outside the monasteries: the materialistic epistemology in science University. While not the first was a train of reasoning deeply universities in the world, these early grounded in seemingly disparate European institutions of learning were threads of methodological skepticism open to scholars, mainly male feudal and an inherent assumption of the lords those who can afford the high existence of God. fees, but who are neither clerics nor monks. This level of democratization The zeitgeist of the era being of education came with a challenge: one of change and progress, the long throughout Europe, traditional 18th century brought about a spate of authority was questioned, and the new different, divergent, and conflicting scholars embraced the notion that theories on the origins and purposes humanity could be improved not only of living systems. Questions on the through prayer and good works, but age of the earth, a subject broached through rational change. by the exposure to non-Christian doctrine as well as archeological  THE EUROPEAN discoveries, were debated. Evolution ENLIGHTENMENT: THE of living things were considered with HYPOTHETICO-DEDUCTIVE the increasing tolerance for METHOD AND DEMOCRATIZING questioning long established dogma KNOWLEDGE and the discovery of fossils, as well as Aristotelian thought was the an openness to test theories by dominant view for a millennium in the experimentation. The Experiments on West. Aristotle’s “Great Chain of the Generation of Insects, written by Being”, as a classification system, was Francesco Redi in the late 17th the major organizing principle and century (who, at that time, was the foundation of the emerging science of court physician to the Grand Duke of biology until the 18th century. Even Tuscany), served to disprove a once- with the many different theories held notion of spontaneous generation available in the 16th – 17th century, of living things. Much later, the theory only the Aristotelian worldview was on the Transmutation of Life was taught in all the leading universities of raised by Lamarck in the early 1800s. 6|SCI EN CE 11 This theory argues for the evolution, and determining the connections the main argument being that species between the parts. It became clear change as individuals relate to their that the reductive study of organisms, environment. Thus, were new ideas alongside the development of more freely discussed, and specialized equipment, afforded more hypotheses on phenomena and their and more powerful means for analysis. underlying mechanisms were tested The elegance of classical experiments not only based on the train of logic and of the time, with the method of reasoning, but based on actual, controlling conditions to minimize physical experimentation. variables, brings into focus the definitive relationships among two Advances in optics allowed for variables, highlighting a direct the visualization and discovery of relationship between a given cause microscopic entities and paving the and a given effect. This capacity to put way for the study of anatomy in forward and test various new theories greater detail. Moreover, advances in allowed for the growth of the field of chemistry eventually allowed for Biology, and its benefits spread greatly analytical studies of phlogiston through medicine, food, and (thenceforth purified to what we know agriculture, among others. now as oxygen gas) and to look into what was once thought of as a It was through this metaphysical vital substance that methodology that Biology, not quite a animated living organisms, now field of study until the 18th century (for conceptualized as proteins called before, it was called natural history), enzymes. branched into sub disciplines including Anatomy, Microbiology, Genetics, Slowly, and with much labor Taxonomy, Cell Biology, Embryology, from scholars and philosophers of the Biochemistry, Physiology, and time, the understanding of Molecular Biology. Following the mechanisms of living systems—very development of chemistry, and the much independent of the need for increase in analytical power of the X- spiritual and magical causes— ray crystallography, the chemical unfolded into the one we accept today. composition of cells became an object of study, a feat anticipated since the LIVING SYSTEMS IN THE 19TH AND age of Alchemy. Thus, with increasing 20TH CENTURY | REDUCTIONIST analytical power, the unit of analysis SCIENCE AND THE GROWTH OF moved from organism to organ to BIOLOGY tissue to cell, and even further within The acceptance and eventual the cell, to its organelles, and later to dominance of the the macromolecules and smaller hypotheticodeductive method as the molecules that have physiological Scientific Method, with its materialist, effects. mechanistic, and reductionist philosophy which analyses a larger The increase in exposure of system by breaking it down into pieces the Europeans to the knowledge and 7|SCI EN CE 11 the vastly different environments of beyond biological sources such as their colonies in the 16th to 17th human and animal power, with the centuries led to the increase in interest development of machines fueled by in collecting, cataloguing, and studying coal and then by petroleum, and then different kinds of organisms in the through electricity. The accumulation different kinds of environments. During of knowledge and the culture of this period, Darwin published his rational skepticism has allowed for theory of evolution. In the 18th and scientific communities to abrogate 19th century, scientific expeditions models that are not backed by current were conducted by trained naturalists. state of data or have been disproved Ecology was established by the late by experimentation. The Cartesian 19th century, and the concept of framework uses its analytical power ecosystems emerged in the mid-20th and focus on how to control conditions century, fusing matter and energy to maximize gains, a useful tool for flows into the study of ecology. This industrial and economic growth. then became the basis of systems Moreover, the exploration of many ecology, which began circa 1960s to frontiers in knowledge were mainly 1970s. With the threats to the utilitarian in objective and were not environment becoming evident in this held back by issues of tradition, period, within the scientific community balance, ethics, or reciprocity. and communicated to the public through books like Carson’s The Silent The Cartesian analytical Spring (1962). The interdisciplinary framework has led to the use of field Environmental Science includes industrial practices that were very traditional science disciplines such as efficient in bringing forth its desired biology, ecology, geology, and outcomes. However, the singular focus chemistry and combines in issues on desired outcomes has led to many such as environmental ethics and unforeseen consequences to the social issues. Thus, it is the gains of environment and to human societies. reductionist biology of the 20th century These severely lack safeguards that that forms the content and the context maintain balance and ensure the of most High School Biology courses. sustainability of the industry and the environment of which it is a part. For  LIMITS OF MECHANISTIC AND many advocates, it is this utilitarian REDUCTIONIST PARADIGMS view of Nature that has led to the In the two hundred years of environmental crises that we Cartesian and thereafter Newtonian experience today. Indeed, they believe science, abstract and practical that the framework from which these scientific knowledge has increased by problems arose cannot be the same leaps and bounds. The analytical framework that will give rise to power of the human senses has been solutions: extended by the creation of tools developed precisely to study various “Cartesian science believed physical phenomena. Energy available that, in any complex system, the to do work has also been increased behaviour of the whole could be 8|SCI EN CE 11 analysed in terms of the properties of its parts. Systems science shows that Over time, technology living systems cannot be understood developed and greater reliance on by analysis. The properties of the mechanical means extending human parts are not intrinsic properties but senses to verify information were can be understood only within the found, leading to changes in context of a larger whole” (Capra, paradigms and ways by which humans 1996). perceive themselves with respect to Nature. Accelerated advances in The study of Living Systems understanding discrete processes of has grown in such a way that it now nature led to greater capacity to seeks to predict and mitigate the change the environment. However, the current environmental crisis that the loss of balance and reciprocity with the human society seems to be moving (re)generative forces of nature led to towards. Reductionist science has the current environmental crises. given us the concepts and tools with which to analyze parts of the living Present day environmental system, but a new perspective and consciousness in this historical context thus new tools are needed to make can be seen as a cyclical return from sense of the whole. holistic to mechanistic paradigms and back again. Human communities will SUMMARY always endeavor to create and refine In this module, we discussed models for understanding the how Nature and the origins of Life processes of nature, and it is the hope were perceived by human of this course that we can use our communities over time: from understanding to further increase not indigenous and traditional ways of only our conceptual knowledge of how viewing nature to the analytically we fit in the cycles of living systems. powerful western Enlightenment We are then called on to recognize, paradigms, to the complex systems respect, and care not only for our perspective we have today. We started limited selves in our limited space/time, with myths and legends and how but for the whole of the living system orality brings metaphorical and of which we are a part. We need to embodied forms of knowledge and consider our increased capacities to transmission. With the creation of the influence the environment, learn from written word, the compilation of the lessons of the past, and work knowledge changed not only in form towards our common future. but also in content: abstraction and longer philosophical reasoning could be reproduced with great fidelity over time and space. It is through written documents transmitted by ancient scribes and translators that we know of the great Greek Philosophers and their theories today. 9|SCI EN CE 11