History of Biology
Why and how: dissecting history
Why study history (of biology)?
1. Learn from your mistakes What should we (not) do again? Do differently? E.g.,: military
adventures, or in biology: eugenics
2. Identity: who are we? Who are our examples? Who is ‘in’? Who is ‘out’? E.g.,: canon of the
Netherlands, biology: heroes in textbooks
3. What are our problems? What should we focus on? What can we expect? E.g.,: the Netherlands &
water, biology: difficult relation with society
4. What have we forgotten? Do we risk losing something valuable? Selective memory? E.g.,: old
skills, biology: taxonomic field knowledge
Problems with ‘textbook-history’
- Heroes are selective: only the geniuses, the ‘great men’.
- Usually portrays the defeated poorly (even though they may have had merits).
- Societal context largely ignored.
- Often written for present purposes, rather than in historic setting (hence ‘presentism’).
- Story of progress, with us at the top.
Let’s start at the beginning!
- Empirical observations: Classification of 500 species
- Embryo studies through a study of eggs
- Some 50 animal dissections
- Got stories of fishers, farmers, & hunters
- Theoretical contributions: in search of organism’s ‘essence’, as ‘explanation’ of its functions
- So, is he, Aristotle (348 - 322BC) the first biologist, our first hero?
Well… maybe.
- Octopus pipi described by Aristotle, it was rediscovered by Cuvier in 19th c., who saw this as an
example of Aristotle’s meticulous empirical research, ‘far ahead of his time’.
- But that says more about the user (Cuvier) than anything else! – equating himself to Aristotle;
how important he himself is
- The Middle Ages, Linnaeus, and Cuvier all flirted with Aristotle, but praised different qualities:
sometimes his theory, sometimes observation.
So, who or what was Aristotle?
- Philosopher, ‘biologist’, naturalist?
- Prime example of empirical biology?
- Prime example of Greek reason?
- Big example of the interaction between empirical observation and theory?
- A lot depends on the context in which we put him: different times and people praised his various
aspects, depending on what personal quality of themselves they wanted to emphasize.
Was Aristotle really first? Why not…. China!
- Herbs and medicine: 1st millennium BC!
- Was advanced in mathematics, astronomy, technology: paper 2nd c, gunpowder 9th c, compass
11th c.
,Or why not start here … Mesopotamia!
- Large scale agriculture (5000BC), astronomy, abacus (c2500BC!); many things needed for
agriculture
Or why not start here … Egypt!
- Mummy presented in the British Museum in Londen (Compare: ‘Our Aristotle did at least 50
dissections!’)
- Mummification from 3300BC onward!
The beginning: ‘our’ Aristotle?
- Viewed from our culture he is seen as important: Source and authority until ca. 17th c.
- A constant reference in philosophy.
- Revival with revival of the classics in 19th c. …in the West!
- For other cultures, ‘the beginning’ may be different.
- Is Western science ‘the’ science? (even if it is now)
What is ‘The Beginning’? Depends on what you consider crucial to ‘biology’
- Detailed knowledge? (shaman, hunter, farmer)
- Systematic empirical study? (E.g., Aristotle)
- Theory? (4th c BC philosophy)
- Biology and medicine? (Hippocrates 460-361 BC)
- Experiments, instruments? (17th c)
- Self-conscious discipline (c1800 the label ´biology´)
- Professional organization of biology? (19th c)
- Hypothetical-deductive method? (20th c)
- That determines what you consider relevant to Aristotle.
What about this ‘presentism’?
- Utilizing history for present purposes, judged by what we know now: Role model of ‘the heroes’,
for example in textbooks
- The beginning of biology by what we now consider as the core (and not by what now looks
exotic)
- What we no longer approve of is omitted from our heroes (E.g., Newton was also an alchemist)
- A lot less about the handicraft, the organization of science, the societal context: ‘lone genius,
ahead of his time’
- Conceptual anachronisms, e.g., ‘biology’ before c1800 (almost unavoidable!)
Biology is a conceptual anachronism: biology was only invented in the 19 th century as a discipline; before
= anachronistic
,Can historians show ‘how it really was’?
- The sources are only partially present: ‘the archive’ is saved for a different purpose.
- All history (and all knowledge) is selective: a fraction of the complex events.
- History is more than just facts depends on what we want & can learn, the questions asked
- Which facts? Which questions? Which relations? Which interpretation? Hence some degree of
presentism is unavoidable!
Hence, we get different ways to write history
- Big thinkers, big theories and discoveries = history of scientific thinking
- Organization of science, e.g., academies, libraries, financial support and patronage = history of
scientific institutions
- Science in relation to culture, world views, art, religion = intellectual history
- Science’s involvement in practices: trade, applications, e.g., via medicine, agriculture or war =
social history of science
- This course: quite a lot of emphasis on science in societal context emphasis on diversity in
science: styles, organizations, practices
How else write history? Let’s start again: the Greek heritage
- One student of Aristotle would have a profound effect on the world.
- Ultimately, this would also create new opportunities for biology
- Aristotle tutoring Alexander the Great (painting Jean Ferris, 1895)
- After Alexander’s early death in 323 B.C., he leaves no heir. The empire is divided among three
of his generals.
Alexandria: the new metropolis
- One of Alexander’s generals, Ptolemaeus Soter (367-283BC), ruled Egypt from Alexandria.
- Great support for ‘science’
- Library of Alexandria. in the ‘house of the Muses’: ‘Museum’ Ca 500.000 - 700.000 ‘books’
(papyrus scrolls)
‘Science’ in Alexandria
- The legendary Pharos lighthouse: an architectural wonder to support trade
- Medical knowledge: anatomy, dissection, even vivisection?
- Herophilus (335-280BC): study of the nervous system, with brain as thought center (instead of
the heart!)
Hypatia
- Scientist-philosopher in Alexandria Mathematics, astronomy, literature? (not much is known)
- One of few women scientists during that period 415: A Christian mob accused her of
witchcraft… … and lynched her!
- Great example for women in science (in 20th c, a symbol of emancipation)
all based of one written line; many interpretations – shows the importance of e.g., presentism
Roman science
- Roman scholars emphasized practical knowledge instead of theoretical systems, and made
inventories of Hellenic knowledge
Galen (Galenus, 129-c.200)
- Doctor/philosopher educated in the Asclepius temple in Pergamon and in Alexandria.
, - Doctor of the gladiators in Pergamon, later became the doctor of the emperors and also a Roman
army doctor.
- Problem: dissection was unacceptable, for religious reasons.
‘Windows of the body’
- Anatomic knowledge by wounded gladiators (wound = ‘window') section on monkeys and pigs
- Describes blood vessels: dark, venous blood ‘from the liver’, light and arterial blood ‘from the
heart’.
- Described nervous system.
- Continued to be medical authority, until Vesalius (16th c).
- His method of bloodletting even had influence until the 19th c!
Galen followed the Greek theory of four ‘humours’ (humeuren): imbalances were seen as the root of
many afflictions, abandoned only in the 18/19th century
After the fall of the Western Roman Empire (476) and decline of Alexandria: to the Greek-speaking
Byzantine Empire (Constantinople, Eastern Roman Empire)
Decline of the Hellenic heritage
- Greece’s culture supported study, e.g., Aristotle’s school, the ‘Lyceum’.
- Lyceum was plundered under the Roman occupation (86 BC), but survived as Romans took over.
- Last philosophy schools in Greece were shut down under the pressure of the Church in the 4th5th
c.
- Library of Alexandria burned (by Bishop Theophilus in 391 in action against the pagans and/or
the Arabs in 642?)
The work of Galen passed on
- After the fall of Rome, Galen’s work was preserved and expanded on in the Byzantine Empire.
- During the 7th – 8th century in Syria, his work was translated from Greek into Arabic and
elaborated.
