ASTRO-110 Lecture 11: Astro-110 - Lecture 11 (Spring - For Grade)
22 Sep 2020
School
Department
Course
Professor
Leo Ellis
Visible Universe
Astro-110 (Spring) - honors
Evolution, Genetics and Experience
● Zeitgeist the general intellectual climate of our culture
● Dichotomy the tendency to think of things in only two outcomes
● Cartesian dualism the belief that there are two aspects to the world, the physical world
that obeys the laws of nature and the mind/soul which cannot be studied which lacks
physical substance
● Ethology the study of animal behaviour in the wild
○ Instinctive behaviour behaviours that occur in all members of a species, even
when there is no opportunity for them to have been learned
● There are two lines of evidence that contradict the physiological or psychological
thinking approach
○ That even the most complex psychological changes can occur due to damage to
the brain
○ Non- human species also possess abilities assumed to be purely psychological and
thus purely human
● One hallmark that was reserved for the mind was self - awareness
○ Asomatognosia deficiency of awareness of parts of one’s own body, usually to
the left side of the body due to damage to the right parietal lobe
○ Chimpanzees also display self-awareness
● All behaviour is the product of three factors
1. The organism’s genetic endowment
2. Its perception of the current situation
3. Its experience
● Darwin was the first to amass large amounts of evidence supporting evolution; with the
three primary pieces of evidence
1. The documented evolution of fossil records through progressively more recent
geological layers
2. The similarities among living species (which suggested they had a common
ancestor)
3. Pointed out the changes brought about by selective breeding programs
● However, the most striking form of evidence was found in the Galapagos finches, who
exhibited these hallmarks after just one drought season
● Darwin argued that evolution occurs through natural selection
○ Argued that members of each species vary greatly in their structure, physiology
and behaviour and that the traits most likely to promote survival are more likely to
be passed on leading to permanent changes to the species
● Fitness the ability of an organism to survive and contribute its genes to the next
generation
● Males of many species establish a hierarchy of social dominance through combative
encounters with other males
○ The dominant male usually wins encounters with all other males and so forth
down the line
