BIOL
1307: Final Exam Potential Essay Questions (for 2008)
BIOLOGY 1307:
BIOLOGICAL IMPACTS AND ISSUES: Final
Exam Essay Questions
III. Below are 9 quotations from each of the 3 essays you have
studied during the past several weeks. On the final exam, you will be given 3
of these quotations (one from each essay), and you will be asked to write a
paragraph to explain the authors' meanings and to summarize the intent/purpose
of each of the 3 selected quotes within the context of the subject matter
during the last month of this course.
(Be careful not to merely rephrase the quote that has already been
given, and expect that to serve as an essay.
(30 points)
Lucretius
1. NOTHING CAN EVER BE
CREATED BY DIVINE POWER OUT OF NOTHING.
The reason why all mortals are so gripped by fear is that they see all
sorts of things happening on the earth and in the sky with no discernible
cause, and these they attribute to the will of a god.
2. …evidence of BODIES
WHOSE EXISTENCE YOU MUST ACKNOWLEDGE THOUGH THEY CANNOT BE SEEN….THERE IS
VACUITY IN THINGS. A grasp of this fact will
be helpful to you in many respects and will save you from much bewildered
doubting and questioning about the universe and from mistrust of my teaching.
3. THE UNIVERSE IS NOT
BOUNDED IN ANY DIRECTION. If it were, it
would necessarily have a limit somewhere. But, clearly, a thing cannot have a
limit unless there is something outside to limit it, so that the eye can follow
it up to a certain point but not beyond.
1. …, by the invention of
contraception, the species Homo sapiens has discovered that he
can become the new variety “Homo contracipiens,”
and many take advantage of this to produce a much reduced fraction of the next
generation. We have found out how to
cheat Nature. HOWEVER, IT WOULD SEEM
LIKELY THAT IN THE VERY LONG RUN NATURE CANNOT BE CHEATED….Nature would have
taken its revenge, and the variety Homo contracipiens
would become extinct and would be replaced by the variety Homo progenetivus.
2. It is appropriate to
examine more closely the new type of heredity that has emerged. I use the cliché of this title in the sense
that Nature is meant to cover the purely genetic qualities of our race, while
NURTURE APPLIES TO THE QUALITIES WE DERIVE FROM EDUCATION AND SOCIAL CONTACT.
3. THE CENTRAL PROBLEM OF
THE WORLD, AT ANY RATE AFTER THE NEXT FIFTY YEARS WILL BE
OVER-POPULATION….population pressure is likely to be so great that there will
be a return to the old conditions of the struggle for life.
Hardin
1. The class of “NO
TECHNICAL SOLUTIONS PROBLEMS” has members.
It is the thesis of the present article that THE “POPULATION PROBLEM” AS
CONVENTIONALLY CONCEIVED, IS A MEMBER OF THIS CLASS.
2. Ruin is the
destination toward which all men rush, each pursuing his own best interest in a
society that believes in the freedom of the commons. FREEDOM IN A COMMONS BRINGS RUIN TO ALL.
3. The only kind of
coercion I recommend is MUTUAL COERCION, MUTUALLY AGREED UPON by the majority
of the people affected.