AS- Answer Questions

Ariella Scott
 

1.     Aristotle’s major innovation to the classification of organisms is that he categorized them into different groups.  For example, he distinguished animals as organisms that bleed blood which were seen under the umbrellas of mammals, reptiles, and birds.  I would say that Pliny and Aristotle’s notions of natural histories include phenomena that would almost seem occult in nature because these studies were taken and transformed from other sources they had access too.  It would also be fair to say that Aristotle and Pliny ranked “ordinary” natural histories as extraordinary and just as profound as what their imaginations exaggerated as there is very little to take for granted when studying natural histories, it seems.

2.     There was a new urgency during Linnaeus’s time to classify the diversity of life due to that period in time being one of major exploration in the European world.  This is also because there began a newfound consciousness that people were having with the world around them.  This entailed the prevalence of insect collections and curiosity cabinets that people would keep as marvels in their homes.  Linnaeus was called the “Little Oracle” due to how he classified and organized organisms in a precise manner.  He altered the way organisms were labeled into a two name system, versus long Latin ones which provided for deeper clarity in communicating different species.

3.     My favorite definitions of Natural History were by Tom Fleischner and Clare Walker Leslie.  I appreciated how Fleischner compared conservation and natural history, and how he discussed that conservation is often led by fear while natural history is guided by love.  This mentality was very apparent in Leslie’s definition as she explained that natural history is linked to our daily activities.  It was an extremely poetic, but also realistic interpretation of this practice.  She also mentioned how the word “history” links natural history to the past, but it is also occuring now.  After hearing these two opinions, I see that both can reach a fine synthesis in communicating how critical it is that we are mindful of the world we live in.  It is known that if something is personal to people, then it can become political.  With these two definitions, improvements could be made.

4.     My favorite quote from Dillard’s essay was not written by her, but instead Stewart Edward White when she quotes him on page 20.  It reads: “As soon as you can forget the naturally obvious and construct an artificial obvious, then you too will see deer.”  The profundity of this quote is how it expresses something I have always thought of but never verbalized which is what good literature should accomplish for its readers.  I grew up camping and hiking, and I always thought about the natural wonders I would see along the way.  However, what I thought about more were the things I was not seeing.  Edward explains this beautifully as I feel I have been conditioned to not notice certain things in the natural world because they are so often hidden from me.  Maybe we have to believe before we can see.