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16 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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Hypothesis vs. theory vs. law
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Hypothesis: NOT just an educated guess, must be TESTABLE
Theory: a conclusion that after repeated testing has not been proven wrong Law: a fact of science - mathematical physical constants of the universe |
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Darwin's contribution was...
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NOT evolution, but the mechanism for it
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George-Louis de Buffon
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• 1st to look for material explanations for evolution (rather than supernatural)
• spontaneous generation, which still suggests some supernatural guidance |
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Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck
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• 1st to propose a mechanism for evolution
• spontaneous generation • environment creates a need → flow of nervous fluid • inheritance of adaptations • QUICK - occurs within a lifetime |
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Thomas Malthus
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• demographer/sociologist
• gave Darwin an analogy for competition over resources vs. population size |
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Alfred Russel Wallace
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• conceptualized natural selection at the same time as Darwin
• his theory is more environmentally driven, while Darwin's based more on individual competition |
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Darwin's key points (5)
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• common origin for ALL organisms
• differential survival of offspring from inheriting most adaptable genes • acts on phenotype • based on fitness • cannot create variation - evolution is a tinkerer |
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Natural selection
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the evolutionary mechanism through which factors in the environment exert pressure that favors some individuals over others to produce the next generation
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4 conditions of natural selection
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• Competition
• Variation • Reproduction • Inheritance |
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Differences between 18th C Enlightenment thinkers and classical thinks
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• Darwin was the only one to suggest a single origin of species
• Classical thinkers believed we were divinely created |
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Georges Cuvier
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• Theory of catatrophism
• possessed largest fossil collection, which had many gaps in it • discredited evolution (transmutation) • believed each species was unrelated, and that catastrophic events made fossilized species go extinct |
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Charles Lyell
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uniformitarianism = the same continuous and uniform natural laws have always been in process, causing slow and imperceptible changes to occur
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Adam Smith
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Laissez-faire economics = no government interference
order comes from individual action and competition without any guidance |
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Fitness
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actions taken by organisms to assure the passing on of ones genes → genetic upper hand can increase fitness
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Issues that Charles Darwin couldn't explain
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• origin of variation: because Darwin didn’t know about genes, did not know about gene flow, genetic drift, and mutation. Mutation is the only one which creates new variation, and since it occurs at the level of DNA it was unknown to Darwin and his contemporaries
• maintenance of variation: Enlightenment thinkers believed in blending inheritance, which would have watered down variation until it was gone. In reality, genes are either recessive or dominant. The combination of these genes is what allows for variation through the expression of either the recessive or dominant ones • inheritance: were unaware of the process of 1 gene from each parent being passed down |
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methodological naturalism
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A way to explain and test the natural world - scientific method
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