The last common ancestors of Chimpanzee and human [Ardi]

Chimpanzees are the closest organism to human beings both genetically and in their physique. However, chimpanzees are more efficient in their arboreal life - arboreality, human beings are walking on two legs-bipedality, no adaptation for arboreal life. So there will be a common ancestor who is capable of arboreality as well as bipedality. Which organism had such capability, is that organism alive or fossil. Is there perfect fossil evidence to prove that there is a chimpanzee-human common ancestor?.

Why is Socrates considered a great philosopher?

Socrates was a Greek philosopher from Athens, the founder of Western philosophy, An enigmatic figure among philosophers, the Socratic approach to philosophical topics such as rationalism and ethics. The Platonic Socrates (Plato was his student) lends his name to the concept of the Socratic method and also to Socratic irony. Socrates exerted a strong influence on philosophers in later antiquity and has continued to do so in the modern era.

There had been philosophers before Socrates: strong men like Thales and Heraclitus, subtle men like Parmenides and Zeno, and seers like Pythagoras and Empedocles. But what Socrates did make special for the world. Why does he stand out from others? Why are philosophers before Socrates called pre-Socraterian philosophers?

They were physical philosophers. They sought physical phenomena, physis, or the nature of external things. They focused on the laws and constituents of the material and measurable worlds. Socrates said, "All these are very good," but there are infinitely worthier things than all these. There is the mind of man. What is a man and what can he become? Socrates asked. So, he prayed for the human soul. For instance, if men too discoursed about justice, he asked, "What is it?"

People easily settle the problems of life and death with a few abstract words. He asked, "What do you mean by these abstract words: honour, virtue, morality, patriotism?"

Socrates loved to deal with the above questions, and he also questioned this.

He asked more than he answered.

So, no topic could have been more relevant than this for his disciples, the young Athenians of that generation. What was happening? The faith of those youths had been destroyed. They are no more faithful to the goddesses of Olympus, the moral code, which they believed as morality had broken.  Fear of man to the innumerable deities had lost.

The government of Athens executed him by forcing him to commit suicide by poisoning.

"I know that I know nothing." - Socrates.

Sileesh Mullasseri

Did Athens have a democracy or an oligarchy?

 

In ancient philosophy, there were two schools of thought that were popular. One was most similar to Rousseau (Jean-Jacques Rousseau was a Genevan philosopher). The school argued that nature is good and civilization is bad. Naturally, all men are equal; civilization has made them into classes. Another school, most like Nietzsche (Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche was a German philosopher), claimed that all men are unequal, contrary to the previous one. Morality was an invention of the weak to limit and deter the strong. That power is the supreme virtue and the supreme desire of man. Of all the forms of government, the wisest and most natural is aristocracy.

Obviously, the latter had an attack on democracy, which was the rise of the wealthy minority in Athens. It was called the Oligarchical Party. How it can be considered a democracy is not clear. There was not much democracy to denounce in Athens. Aristocracy was the symbol of power and government. Athens had 400,000 citizens, and about 250,000 were slaves, without any political rights. Only a few of the 150,000 free citizens are represented in Ecclesia, Athens' general assembly or parliament, where state policies are debated and decided. The Dikasteria, the supreme court of Athens, consisted of over a thousand members to make bribery expensive, selected through alphabetical root among the free citizens. However, no institution has ever been democratic, the meaning that we have assigned to democracy.

Philosophy started with astronomy or material science?

Philosophy probably started with astronomy, because the first Greek philosophers were astronomers. Primarily, this knowledge is used to navigate; the stars become their guides for navigation. With philosophy, men grew bold enough to attempt explaining processes before attributing them to supernatural agencies and powers.

But first, this philosophy was physical. Ancient people looked at the material world and asked questions about what was the final constituent of things, which resulted in Democritus' thought of materialism. He was an ancient pre-Socratic philosopher who lived in Greece between 460 and 370 BC. He is remembered for developing the atomic theory of the universe.

Leucippus, another pre-Socratic philosopher, was the mentor of Democritus, credited as the first philosopher to develop a theory of atomism. Democritus's speculation of atoms was taken from his mentor Leucippus. Their contribution has a partial resemblance to the atomic theory of the nineteenth century. So, some consider Democritus more of a scientist than a philosopher. Even though none of his writings have survived, many considered him the "father of modern science."

Art of asking right questions

The art of asking questions is a skill that makes reformation in society. In everyday life, we are asking questions like Who, Why, What, How etc. Once Albert Einstein said, “Any fool can ask questions, but a genius can ask right questions”.

Why is asking questions so important?

This is another good question. All philosophers, scientists, reformers are successful because they have good questions to solve. They asked questions, they tried to find good answers for their questions. All discoveries, innovations and reformations are made because of questions that usually may not be Why, Who How etc. But there are questions that really need answers.

How can we ask the right questions?

To ask the right question, we need to become good listeners, good readers and we have to analyze the current scenario thoroughly. Ultimately a good listener can make good questions. For any conversation, if we listen properly, we can find the right question to ask. In any kind of scenario, whether it is in the field of science, social, political or in conversation. We should listen, learn, read, analyze the subject well to arrive at the right questions.

Yes. It’s true the right question makes your life better, and it’s the primary need to achieve your goal. Geetha and Madhu, my trainers in science writing, taught me the need of asking why questions, which made a lot of changes in my approach to writing and the way of listening to a scientific problem.

I think, for asking the right question we have to keep reading, listening to a lot to dig up the questions. So, keep asking questions, the right question may lead to success in our life.

Sileesh Mullasseri

Why do plants become masters of epigenetic regulation?

Plants are the primary producers and they give food to all.  Before I talk about epigenetic regulation I have to explain what it is. Epigenetics is the study of heritable phenotype changes that do not involve changes in the nucleotide sequence. But epigenetic modifications change the physical structure of DNA. Epigenetic modifications are functionally relevant changes to the genome, but that does not change in the nucleotide sequence. Generally,  epigenetic modifications are produced by two mechanisms, that are methylation and histone modifications.

Identical twins are the best example of epigenetic regulation even though they share the same DNA. Their experience in their life may induce the expression of some genes and they behave differently,  look differently, because of their modification to the environment. If they are given with the same environment, the modification may occur, which is due to epigenetic regulation that basically does not come from the DNA sequence. And these changes are reversible because they do not change the DNA sequence. 

What are the uses of such modifications?

These modifications are part of the survival of the fittest theory of Darwin.  An organism may face many types of stresses or difficult situations in its environment. Usually, animals may migrate from stress or from its environmental conditions, especially in the case of fast migrating organisms that move away from cold or heat stress. This happens because they are moving organisms. It is the most suitable and very easy process for them. So animals generally do not require a high level of epigenetic modifications.

In plants,  these are the most difficult things that they cannot move or migrate. If any stress occurs what do they do? They have to modify themselves, they have to modify their physiology in order to cope up with the environment.  Yes,  this kind of activity is more common in plants than animals. Most of the epigenetic modifications yet identified in epigenetics are predominantly dealt with or identified in plants.

What are the applications of Epigenetics?

Epigenetics has wonderful applications in the field of medical science. Many diseases can be cured by epigenetic modification or induced epigenetic modification and many types of research are going on these aspects.

In agriculture, epigenetics is the most promising field of science that can be used for modifying the plant's property according to the environment. Climate-smart crops can be developed from the information on epigenetic modifications and more studies into the sector can improve future agriculture because now most crops are affected by climate change. It can be overcome by epigenetics. It's a science that has significant scope in the future.

Sileesh Mullasseri

The Diderot effect

Have you thought about it! If you bought a new car, a brand new one. You may be very happy, but soon you think I have an old car porch to keep my car or my house does not look good, it's not new and never matches with my car…

Then you may think about upgrading your home, your dress, phone and even your shoes to match with the dress. 

Yes, it happens, not only in the case of a car but in any new item you bought. You may feel the desire to upgrade the associated materials. This is a simple example of the materialist psychology of consumerism.

The Diderot effect is a social phenomenon related to consumerism. This concept is based on two fundamental ideas, the first one is material purchased by a consumer aligned with their sense of identity, they will complement one another and purchase will go on. The second one is the introduction of new items or possessions that deviates from their current complementary goods and may lead to spiralling consumption. 

In 1988,  Grant McCracken a Canadian anthropologist and author, coined the name “Diderot effect” he was one of the scholars of consumption patterns and known for his books about culture and commerce.

Where did the name“Diderot effect” come from?

In the 18th century, French philosopher Denis Diderot first described this effect in an essay. In this essay, he tells about the gift of a luxury scarlet dressing gown that eventually plunges him into debt. He was happy with the gift, but later he was dissatisfied with the rest of his old possessions. He replaced almost everything and brought new and luxurious ones. For example, he replaced his old chair with a new Morocco leather chair, his writing-table replaced with an expensive one, and his home was modified. All his money and took out loans to buy new articles for his home. 

This was an extreme case, but there is a tendency in society that people may align their identity with their newly brought materials. And this psychology is a good fuel for capitalism.

In his essay, he says “Regrets on Parting with My Old Dressing Gown”. Here is one more term in McCracken's usage “Diderot unities”, A Diderot unity is a group of objects that are considered to be culturally complementary, in relation to one another.

Image: jobsanger.blogspot.com

Sileesh Mullasseri