Plato To DNA: A Brief History By Esther I. Muehlbauer

Plato to Darwin to DNA – A Brief History by Esther I. Muehlbauer is about the overall history of thoughts and concepts that developed our world throughout time. Muehlbauer touches on the most important aspects of life and the evolution of humans from ancient philosophers to the current twenty-first century. From natural philosophers such as Socrates and Aristotle to Francis Bacon in the Scientific Revolution, all of them have had a large impact on how our world works. Chapter three discusses the lasting legacies of different natural philosophers. Socrates is one of my favorite philosophers because of his teachings of “Socratic dialogues”. Even though none of works were written down, his ideas lived on through one of his students, Plato. In “Socratic dialogues”, Socrates uses a questioning technique teach his students, rather than Socrates himself answering his students. For example, Socrates questions a performer named Ion about who knows more about
Specifically, from ancient China, the concept of Yin and Yang is still a popular symbol in today’s culture. There are five phases that signify transition and change: “Water quells Fire; Fire melts Metal; Metal cuts Wood; A Wood plow turns Earth; Earth Halts Water.” These phases are a continuous cycle that are connected with one another. Ying and Yang represent everything that is created, and there is an equal balance between the two. They are opposites, yet within each of them is a piece of their opponent. Without a perfect balance, life could not have been created. Medical knowledge during ancient China used the concept of Ying and Yang to describe some of the functions of the human body. This was until 1600s when William Harvey contributed to the understanding of the heart and circulatory systems in humans. This is discussed in Chapter six, where biological discoveries are made during the Renaissance