AIOU Solved Assignment Course Code 6553 Assignment No.1 Autumn 2020

                               COURSE CODE 6553

ASSIGMENT NO 1

Q.1 Critically analyze the major language issues in secondary level textbooks.

Ans:- In the principal decade after Pakistan picked up autonomy after the parcel of India, "Pakistan believed its set of experiences to be a piece of bigger India's, a typical history, a joint history, and indeed Indian reading material were being used in the prospectus in Pakistan."[1] The public authority under Ayub Khan, in any case, wished to modify the historical backdrop of Pakistan to reject any reference India and entrusted the antiquarians inside Pakistan to fabricate a patriot account of a "isolated" history that eradicated the nation's Indian past.[1] According to Hussain Haqqani, just authoritatively distributed course books are utilized in Pakistan's schools and universities since the time of Ayub Khan. This is utilized by Pakistani government to make a standard story of Pakistan's set of experiences. Elizabeth A. Cole of the George Mason University School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution noticed that Pakistani course readings wipe out the nation's Hindu and Buddhist past, while alluding to Muslims as a solid element and zeroing in exclusively on the approach of Islam in the Indian subcontinent.[2] During the standard of General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq a "program of Islamization" of the nation including the reading material was started.[3] General Zia's 1979 training strategy expressed that "[the] most noteworthy need would be given to the update of the educational plans with the end goal of revamping the whole substance around Islamic idea and giving instruction a philosophical direction so Islamic philosophy pervades the thinking about the more youthful age and encourages them with the vital conviction and capacity to refashion society as indicated by Islamic tenets".[4] Now, the commitments of Nehru, Gandhi, Ambedkar, Patel and Bose to the opportunity development from British occupation are discarded from Pakistani textbooks.[5]

As per the Sustainable Development Policy Institute, since the 1970s Pakistan's school reading material have efficiently instilled scorn towards India and Hindus through authentic revisionism.[6]

Sabotaging of majority rule esteems and constitutionalism

In March 2016 Senate Chairman Raza Rabbani of upper place of the Pakistani Parliament recognized that since Zia times Pakistani course books schedule actually shows kids 12 advantages of autocracy against only 8 advantages of democracy.[7]

Course books of strict instruction

In Pakistan since 1980s Islamiyat (Islamism) is an obligatory subject for each instructive levels.[8] Since 2018 Punjab area of Pakistan accommodated Nazrah Quran (recitation of the Arabic content) to be educated from class I to V and perusing interpretation of the Quran for classes VI-XII has been made required according to the Punjab Compulsory Teaching of the Holy Quran Act 2018.[8]

In Punjab Pakistan a board speaking to Islamic pastorate called Muttahida Ulema Board, Punjab previously had option to blue pencil instructive substance; a Curriculum and Textbook Board (Amendment) Bill 2020 passed collectively gave extra privileges of pre screening any Islam related substance in all of course books including those of Islamiat, Pakistan Studies, History, Urdu Literature.[9][10] With another Governor's in June 2020 pronouncement made passing of Quranic assessment prior to getting any University degree mandatory.[9] According to Baela Raza Jamil, June 2020 administrative changes in Punjab Pakistan would bargain upon opportunity for request based learning and basic intuition in schooling in Pakistan.[8] Huma Yusuf communicated shock over lost cloisters in Pakistani training where in traditional washing of instructive substance is being organized over instruction of Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics and basic thinking.[11]

A deliberate assemblage of educationists Working Group on Inclusive Education (WGIE), communicated its genuine misgivings about authoritative measures in Punjab Pakistan bargaining right of strict opportunity and diversity.[8]

As per investigation of Muhammad Azeem Ashraf at Hunan University Changsha, China; Most of encouraging staff in Pakistan accept since Pakistan is Islamic nation Islam must be related with patriotism so no one but Islam can be presented through strict schooling, and for all intents and purposes just incorporates Sunni Islam, that basically prompts rejection of minority strict musings from Pakistani citizenship and human rights.[12]

Reading material of news-casting in Pakistan

As indicated by Dr Naazir Mahmood, messages books on news coverage in Pakistan neglect to cover subjects of Critical reasoning, information improvement, Freedom of discourse, Gender considers, minority rights, common liberties, schooling wellbeing and other formative examinations, Democracy and constitutionalism etc.[13] Mahmood says thus, attentively or accidentally, rather than addressing, Pakistani writers wind up conveying forward jingoistic, separate and biased accounts, supporting and in any event, advancing scorn discourse and sectarianism against strict minorities in Pakistan.[13]

In a 1995 paper distributed in the International Journal of Middle East Studies, that zeroed in on a recently concocted subject of 'Pakistan Studies', student of history Ayesha Jalal notes enormous degrees of imaginative envisioning in the production of the state historiography, to cut out a public past dependent on domineering qualities. She commented of Pakistan's set of experiences course books to be among the best accessible hotspots for surveying the nexus among force and fanaticism, in the respect and noted of an inflexible state-controlled schooling framework and educational program, which assimilated this revisionist history among the majority, to fulfill its public ideology.[14]

Writers change broadly, as to building up a time period of the development of the country state; in what Jalal considers as extremely valuable instances of account disarrays moving from pressures between the philosophy of Muslim patriotism and the topographical restrictions of the Pakistani country state.[14] Whilst some dish Islamic ideologists find the time span to compare with the introduction of Islam on the Arabian landmass and decide to disregard the spatial and fleeting distance between the two non-deliberate happenings, others settle on a sub-mainland approach.[14] An Introduction to Pakistan Studies, (a mainstream course book which is mandatory perusing for first and second year undergrads reading for a F.A degree ever), cases of Pakistan being an Islamic State which is represented by Allah and is definitely not a simple geological substance however a philosophy mirroring a novel human progress and culture, that was a result of a work to oppose the inconvenience of Hindu Nationalism on Muslim masses and ward the dishonest acts of Hinduism.[14] Another reading material – A Text Book of Pakistan Studies guarantees that Pakistan "came to be set up unexpectedly when the Arabs under Mohammad canister Qasim involved Sindh and Multan'" and from that point likens the Indian subcontinent with Pakistan, whose most noteworthy ruler is therefore considered to be Aurangzeb.[14] Anti-Indian feelings, combined with hostile to Hindu biases mixes these issues.[14] K. Ali's two volume history intended for B.A. understudies, even while following the pre-history of the 'Indo-Pakistan' subcontinent to the Paleolithic Age and examining the Dravidians and the Aryans, reliably alludes to the post-1947 outskirts of Pakistan.[14] At the end, he bolsters the presence of the country state, in view of a strict belief system, considering a need to inoculate themselves from (affirmed) Hindu aggression showed to the Muslims during the Independence battle and the way that the subcontinent was administered by Muslims for centuries.[14] Scholars like Jameel Jalibi questions the legitimacy of any public history that makes reference to Pakistan's "pre-Islamic past".[14] Jalal noticed Ali's attestations to build up receptive strict dogmatism, as a premise of Pakistan's statehood.[14] Secularism, Communism et al are painted as detestable dangers to the state and Jalal takes note of a reading material wherein Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was portrayed as an alcoholic, characterless and an un-Islami-disapproved of man, politeness his sociopolitical leanings towards socialism yet Zia ul Hak and his tyrannical military system is broadly commended for his abidance by Islamic ideologies.[14] considering the Balochs, Sindhis et al being progressively vocal about their territorial culture, one course book distinguishes regionalism as a "risky episode".[14] It proceeds to specify that endeavors to progress 'local tongues and legends' was an assault on the very establishments of the state and that Punjabism will never be permitted to supplant the Islamic culture, since it's supporter figures had battled against Islamic rulers. Textbooks as often as possible signify Urdu to be better than provincial vernaculars; a banner carrier of aggregate Islamic identity.

Every one of these stories, however offering contentions of differing measurements and extension, eventually uphold the public arrangement for the Islamization of the state and the guideline of the two-country hypothesis, wherein the trifecta of Muslims, Islam and Pakistan can't be challenged.[14] Jalal blames them for disposing of Jinnah's calls for secularism, the resistance of various Muslims to the segment and enslavement of territorial networks per their own convenience.[14] She noticed a more extensive reason in teaching the people in the future to dismiss anything in their provincial societies that neglects to qualify as 'Islamic' and make progress toward a profound and social authority, for the sake of Islam.

Against Indian slants, combined with hostile to Hindu biases mixes these issues.

Q.2 Discuss status of social studies textbooks in today's and tomorrow's perspective.

Ans:- Pakistan examines educational plan (Urdu: مطالعہ پاکستان Muṭāla e-Pākistān) is the name[1][2] of an educational plan of scholarly examination and study that includes the way of life, socioeconomics, geology, history, and legislative issues of Pakistan. The subject is generally explored in and outside the nation, however outside Pakistan it is regularly essential for a more extensive South Asian examinations or some other more extensive field. A few colleges in Pakistan have divisions and examination focuses committed to the subject, though numerous free exploration foundations do multidisciplinary research on Pakistan Studies. There are likewise various global associations that are occupied with community educating, exploration, and trade exercises regarding the matter.

As the second biggest South Asian nation, and one of the significant entertainers in the legislative issues of the Muslim world, Pakistan is a focal point of multidisciplinary studies.[3] Various colleges in the United States and the United Kingdom have research bunches occupied in scholarly and exploration related exercises on Pakistan Studies. One such model is the American Institute of Pakistan Studies (AIPS) at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, set up since 1973. A subsidiary of the Association for Asian Studies, the establishment consistently holds occasions, for example, workshops, public talks, and gatherings on different points identified with the Pakistan Studies. It likewise offers yearly global associations for the examination on materials identifying with the set of experiences and culture of Pakistan.

In April 2004, AIPS coordinated a worldwide workshop on the Salt Range Culture Zone of Pakistan at the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Wisconsin–Madison. The occasion gave the global crowd an occasion to comprehend the archeological and engineering legacy of the nation.

Another scholarly activity is the British Association for Pakistan Studies that was set up in 1989. The discussion has more extensive perspectives on the point than the normal historiographical settings, and empowers examination and discourse that includes both the scholastics and professionals. The gathering recognizes that the theme has not gotten such an individual consideration that the nation and its general public merit, and along these lines endeavors to expand global mindfulness on the subject.

There are additionally bigger worldwide and multicultural associations that give pluralist stages to the conversations and discussions on Pakistan Studies inside the more extensive settings of Asia. The Asia Foundation, for instance, has dispatched explicit undertakings for a different comprehension of the subject through activities on neighborhood administration, common society, basic freedoms, and healthcare[7] just as political, monetary, legal, and unfamiliar relations.[8]

Educational program

Pakistan Studies is one of only a handful few legacy subjects[9] for O-level[10] and IGCSE capabilities represented by Cambridge International Examinations. The prospectus covers Pakistan's set of experiences, social legacy, public character, geology, economy, and climate, just as the difficulties and openings looked by the country.[11]

In Pakistan

In Pakistan, the subject is one of the three mandatory courses (alongside the Urdu and English language courses) at the Secondary School and Higher Secondary school levels of education.[12] It is likewise instructed as a degree course all things considered of the Social Science offices in numerous colleges. There are likewise college offices devoted to the training and exploration in Pakistan Studies.

A considerable lot of these offices give degree projects to inside and out investigations, just as examination offices for MPhil and PhD researchers. Courses comprehensively range from the set of experiences, governmental issues and phonetics to the nation's geology and financial matters, and from international concerns and religion studies to the social relations and literature.[14] The zeroed in consideration regarding the matter at advanced education levels implies a more extensive degree for the exploration, hence making the subject an inexorably interdisciplinary one.

 

Educational program issues

The variable political history of Pakistan shows the nation being controlled on the other hand by the regular citizen and military administrations. This absence of political progression has had its consequences for the manner in which the set of experiences was portrayed in the educational programs of Pakistan Studies until 2006, which progressively depicted what Rubina Saigol named as 'glorification of military'.[15] However, a periodic endeavors to modify the verifiable writings didn't get away from reactions from the scholastics and researchers in Pakistan and abroad.[16] Historian Ayesha Jalal in her 1995 article likewise raised worries over the patterns of authentic historiography in Pakistan's set of experiences course books. [17]

Yvette Rosser, in an article dependent on her PhD thesis,[18] views such educational plan as a composite of enthusiastic talks. She recognizes critical deformities, inalienable inconsistencies and wrong data inside instructive schedule when all is said in done and the Pakistan Studies reading material in particular.[19] In 2003, Sustainable Development Policy Institute in Pakistan distributed a report that had risen up out of a study of course books of Urdu, English, Social Studies and Civics subjects being educated at the auxiliary and higher optional school levels.[20] The overview distinguished errors of certainty and oversights that seemed to contort the centrality of genuine occasions in the nation's set of experiences. A portion of the unmistakable issues incorporated the absence of comprehension towards the common society, strict variety, and sexual orientation relations. The report suggested for major primary changes and foundation of a National Education Advisory Board to concentrate the educational program advancement and complete ordinary revisions.

About the worldwide impression of the subject, Burzine Waghmar of the School of Oriental and African Studies contends that Pakistan Studies is progressively seen with resonating meetings on weapons control, common turmoil, fortified work, sexual orientation imbalance and the like.[22] These issues are considered among significant obstacles to the more extensive global interest in the subject. Waghmar reasons that Pakistan and India, among other oriental social orders, are tormented by instinctive patriotism and post-magnificent depression where state-endorsed creeds stifle mixed authentic readings.[22]

As indicated by the Sustainable Development Policy Institute report 'Related with the emphasis on the Ideology of Pakistan has been a basic part of disdain against India and the Hindus. For the upholders of the Ideology of Pakistan, the presence of Pakistan is characterized uniquely comparable to Hindus, and subsequently the Hindus must be painted as contrarily as possible'[20] A 2005 report by the National Commission for Justice and Peace a non benefit association in Pakistan, discovered that Pakistan Studies reading material in Pakistan have been utilized to explain the disdain that Pakistani strategy creators have endeavored to instill towards the Hindus. 'Hostile hatreds legitimize military and dictatorial principle, sustaining an attack mindset. Pakistan Studies course readings are a functioning site to speak to India as an antagonistic neighbor' the report expressed. 'The narrative of Pakistan's past is deliberately composed to be unmistakable from, and frequently in direct differentiation with, translations of history found in India. From the official reading material, understudies are trained that Hindus are in reverse and offbeat.' Further the report expressed 'Course books reflect purposeful muddling. The present understudies, residents of Pakistan and its future chiefs are the survivors of these halfway truths'.

 

An article in Pakistan's most seasoned paper Dawn remarking on a report in The Guardian on Pakistani Textbooks noted 'By engendering ideas, for example, jihad, the mediocrity of non-Muslims, India's instilled animosity with Pakistan, and so on, the course book board distributions utilized by all administration schools advance a mentality that is biased and reactionary. Since there are a bigger number of youngsters concentrating in these schools than in madrassahs the harm done is more noteworthy. '[27][28]

 

As indicated by the antiquarian Professor Mubarak Ali, course book change in Pakistan started with the presentation of Pakistan Studies and Islamic examinations by Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto in 1971 into the public educational plan as obligatory subject. Previous military tyrant Gen Zia-ul-Haq under an overall drive towards Islamization, begun the cycle of chronicled revisionism vigorously and abused this activity. 'The Pakistani foundation showed their kids directly from the earliest starting point that this state was based on religion – that is the reason they don't have capacity to bear different religions and need to clear out all of them.'[28][29]

As indicated by Pervez Hoodbhoy, a material science educator at Quaid-I-Azam University in Islamabad, the Islamizing of Pakistan's schools started in 1976 when a demonstration of parliament required all administration and non-public schools (with the exception of those showing the British O-levels from Grade 9) to follow an educational program that incorporates learning results for the governmentally endorsed Grade 5 social examinations class, for example, 'Recognize and distinguish powers that might be neutralizing Pakistan,' 'Make addresses on Jihad,' 'Gather pictures of cops, fighters, and public watchmen,' and 'India's malicious plans against Pakistan.'

Alluding to NCERT's broad audit of course readings in India in 2004, Verghese thought about the disintegration of plural and popularity based qualities in course books in India, and the twisting of history in Pakistan to suggest the requirement for coordination between Bangladeshi, Indian, and Pakistani antiquarians to create a composite history of the South Asia as a typical reader.

Q.3 What are some of the common controversies in religious textbooks? Explain the review criteria for textbooks in the religious context of Pakistan.

Ans:- Authentic negationism, likewise called denialism, is falsification or twisting of the verifiable record. It ought not be conflated with authentic revisionism, a more extensive term that reaches out to recently confirmed, genuinely contemplated scholastic reevaluations of history.

In endeavoring to modify the past, ill-conceived verifiable revisionism may utilize strategies unacceptable in legitimate chronicled talk, for example, introducing referred to produced archives as real, concocting cunning however unlikely explanations behind doubting veritable records, ascribing ends to books and sources that report the inverse, controlling factual arrangement to help the given perspective, and intentionally mistranslating texts.

A few nations, for example, Germany, have condemned the negationist correction of certain authentic occasions, while others take a more careful situation for different reasons, for example, assurance of free discourse; others order negationist views.[citation neede

Prominent instances of negationism incorporate Holocaust forswearing, Armenian Genocide disavowal, Lost Cause of the Confederacy, Myth of the clean Wehrmacht, Japanese atrocity denial[7][8] and the refusal of Soviet wrongdoings.

In writing, the outcomes of recorded negationism have been inventively portrayed in certain works of fiction, for example, Nineteen Eighty-Four, by George Orwell. In present day times, negationism may spread through new media, for example, the Internet.

The expression "negationism" (négationnisme) was first instituted by the French history specialist Henry Rousso in his 1987 book The Vichy Syndrome which took a gander at the French famous memory of Vichy France and the French Resistance. Rousso contended that it was important to recognize authentic recorded revisionism in Holocaust considers and politically spurred forswearing of the Holocaust, which he named negationism.[9]

Generally, the reason for verifiable refutation is to accomplish a public, political point, by moving war-blame, decrying an adversary, giving a dream of triumph, or safeguarding a friendship.[10] Sometimes the motivation behind an amended history is to sell more books or to stand out with a paper headline.[11] The antiquarian James M. McPherson said that negationists would need revisionist history comprehended as, "an intentionally misrepresented or twisted translation of the past to fill sectarian or philosophical needs in the present".

The chief elements of negationist history are the capacities to control philosophical impact and to control political impact. In "History Men Battle over Britain's Future", Michael d'Ancona said that verifiable negationists "appear to have been given an aggregate assignment in [a] country's social turn of events, the full noteworthiness of which is arising just now: To rethink [national] status in a changing world".[13] History is a social asset that adds to forming public personality, culture, and the public memory. Through the investigation of history, individuals are permeated with a specific social personality; in this manner, by contrarily reexamining history, the negationist can create a particular, philosophical character. Since antiquarians are credited as individuals who resolutely seek after truth, via certainty, negationist antiquarians benefit from the history specialist's expert believability, and present their pseudohistory as obvious scholarship.[14] By adding a proportion of validity to crafted by amended history, the thoughts of the negationist student of history are all the more promptly acknowledged in the public mind.[14] As such, proficient antiquarians perceive the revisionist practice of chronicled negationism as crafted by "truth-searchers" finding various certainties in the authentic record to accommodate their political, social, and philosophical contexts.

Political impact

History gives understanding into past political approaches and results, and along these lines helps individuals in extrapolating political ramifications for contemporary society. Recorded negationism is applied to develop a particular political fantasy – at times with authentic assent from the public authority – whereby self-trained, beginner, and dissenter scholastic history specialists either control or distort chronicled records to accomplish political closures. In the USSR (1917–91), the philosophy of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and Soviet historiography treated reality and the partisan division as a similar scholarly entity;[16] Soviet recorded negationism progressed a particular, political and philosophical plan about Russia and its place in world history.[17]

Methods

Verifiable negationism applies the methods of examination, citation, and introduction for trickiness of the peruser and refusal of the chronicled record. On the side of the "modified history" viewpoint, the negationist antiquarian uses bogus reports as real sources, presents plausible motivations to doubt real archives, abuses distributed sentiments by citing out of chronicled setting, controls insights, and mistranslates messages in other languages.[18] The modification procedures of authentic negationism work in the scholarly space of public discussion for the headway of a given understanding of history and the social point of view of the "overhauled history".[19] As a record, the reconsidered history is utilized to invalidate the legitimacy of the genuine, narrative record, thus reexamine clarifications and impression of the talked about verifiable occasion, to misdirect the peruser, the audience, and the watcher; subsequently, authentic negationism capacities as a method of propaganda.[20] Rather than present their works for peer audit, negationist students of history change history and utilize intelligent misrepresentations to build contentions that will get the ideal outcomes, a "amended history" that underpins a plan – political, philosophical, strict, etc.[6] In the act of historiography, the British student of history Richard J. Evans depicts the specialized contrasts, between proficient antiquarians and negationist students of history:

 

Legitimate and proficient antiquarians don't smother portions of citations from archives that conflict with their own case, however consider, and, if fundamental, revise their own case, as needs be. They don't present, as veritable, archives which they know to be manufactured, in light of the fact that these fabrications end up support up the thing they are stating. They don't design cunning, however unrealistic, and totally unsupported explanations behind doubting certified archives, in light of the fact that these reports oppose their contentions; once more, they revise their contentions, if so, or, undoubtedly, relinquish them out and out. They don't intentionally ascribe their own decisions to books and different sources, which, indeed, after looking into it further, really state the inverse. They don't enthusiastically search out the most noteworthy potential figures in a progression of measurements, freely of their dependability, or something else, just in light of the fact that they need, for reasons unknown, to augment the figure being referred to, but instead, they evaluate all the accessible figures, as unbiasedly as could be expected under the circumstances, to show up at a number that will withstand the basic investigation of others. They don't intentionally mistranslate sources in unknown dialects to make them more workable to themselves. They don't persistently create words, phrases, citations, occurrences and occasions, for which there is no verifiable proof, to make their contentions more plausible.[21]

Misdirection incorporates misrepresenting data, darkening reality, and misleading control popular assessment on the authentic occasion examined in the reconsidered history. The negationist antiquarian applies the methods of trickiness to accomplish either a political or a philosophical objective, or both. The field of history recognizes among history books dependent on solid, obvious sources, which were peer-assessed before distribution; and beguiling history books, in view of questionable sources, which were not submitted for peer review.[22] The differentiation among sorts of history books settles upon the examination methods utilized recorded as a hard copy a set of experiences. Unquestionable status, exactness, and receptiveness to analysis are focal principles of authentic grant. At the point when these methods are avoided, the introduced chronicled data may be intentionally beguiling, a "changed history.

Forswearing is protectively shielding data from being imparted to different history specialists, and asserting that realities are false – particularly refusal of the atrocities and wrongdoings against humankind executed over the span of the World War II (1939–45) and the Holocaust (1933–45). The negationist history specialist ensures the chronicled revisionism venture by accuse moving, oversight, interruption, and media control; periodically, disavowal by insurance incorporates hazard the board for the actual security of revisionist sources.

Additional data: Holocaust refusal and Criticism of Holocaust disavowal

Relativization and effort to downplay

Additional data: Holocaust effort to downplay

Contrasting certain chronicled abominations with different violations is the act of relativization, understanding by moral decisions, to modify public view of the main authentic outrage. Albeit such correlations frequently happen in negationist history, their profession isn't generally essential for revisionist goals upon the verifiable realities, yet an assessment of good judgment.

The Holocaust and Nazism: The student of history Deborah Lipstadt says that the idea of "practically identical Allied wrongs, for example, the removal of Germans after World War II from Nazi-colonized terrains and the formal Allied atrocities, is at the focal point of, and is a ceaselessly rehashed subject of, contemporary Holocaust refusal, and that such relativization presents "unethical equivalencies".

Advocates of the Lost Cause of the Confederacy regularly utilize the Irish slaves fantasy to erroneously guarantee that white individuals confronted the equivalent.

Q.4 Why religion textbooks are changed give arguments with examples.

Ans:- The Pakistani perusing material dispute relates to the declared mistake of most Pakistani course books and the presence of valid revisionism in them. The substance of Pakistan's real course readings has consistently been censured by a couple of sources including various inside Pakistan for the present and again progressing exacting extremism and Indophobia, provoking calls for instructive program change.

In the essential decade after Pakistan got self-governance after the package of India, "Pakistan accepted its arrangement of encounters to be a bit of greater India's, a normal history, a joint history, and in all honesty Indian perusing material were being utilized in the timetable in Pakistan."[1] The public authority under Ayub Khan, in any case, wished to change the verifiable background of Pakistan to restrict any reference India and endowed the curators inside Pakistan to create a loyalist story of a "free" history that erased the country's Indian past.[1] According to Hussain Haqqani, just officially conveyed course books are used in Pakistan's schools and colleges since the time of Ayub Khan. This is used by Pakistani government to make a standard record of Pakistan's arrangement of encounters. Elizabeth A. Cole of the George Mason University School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution saw that Pakistani course books murder the country's Hindu and Buddhist past, while suggesting Muslims as a strong component and focusing in only on the happening to Islam in the Indian subcontinent.[2] During the norm of General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq a "program of Islamization" of the country including the perusing material was started.[3] General Zia's 1979 guidance procedure communicated that "[the] most imperative need would be given to the correction of the instructive projects with the ultimate objective of overhauling the entire substance around Islamic thought and provide preparing a philosophical guidance so Islamic way of thinking overruns the considering the more energetic age and makes them with the significant conviction and limit refashion society according to Islamic tenets".[4] Now, the responsibilities of Nehru, Gandhi, Ambedkar, Patel and Bose to the open door advancement from British occupation are disposed of from Pakistani textbooks.[5]

According to the Sustainable Development Policy Institute, since the 1970s Pakistan's school perusing material have effectively shown disdain towards India and Hindus through chronicled revisionism.[6]

 

Undermining of larger part rule regards and constitutionalism

In March 2016 Senate Chairman Raza Rabbani of upper spot of the Pakistani Parliament perceived that since Zia times Pakistani course readings plan really shows youths 12 points of interest of totalitarianism against just 8 favorable circumstances of democracy.

Perusing material of eacting preparing

In Pakistan since 1980s Islamiyat (Islamism) is an important subject for each enlightening levels.[8] Since 2018 Punjab zone of Pakistan obliged Nazrah Quran (recitation of the Arabic substance) to be instructed from class I to V and scrutinizing understanding of the Quran for classes VI-XII has been made required by the Punjab Compulsory Teaching of the Holy Quran Act 2018.[8]

In Punjab Pakistan a board addressing Islamic service called Muttahida Ulema Board, Punjab recently had choice to blue pencil enlightening substance; a Curriculum and Textbook Board (Amendment) Bill 2020 passed all in all gave additional advantages of pre screening any Islam related substance in all of perusing material including those of Islamiat, Pakistan Studies, History, Urdu Literature.[9][10] With another Governor's in June 2020 profession made passing of Quranic appraisal preceding tolerating any University degree mandatory.[9] According to Baela Raza Jamil, June 2020 definitive changes in Punjab Pakistan would deal upon open door for demand based learning and essential derivation in tutoring in Pakistan.[8] Huma Yusuf conveyed stun over lost religious communities in Pakistani preparing where in conventional washing of informational substance is being coordinated over preparing of Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics and fundamental thinking.[11]

A purposeful collection of educationists Working Group on Inclusive Education (WGIE), conveyed its veritable second thoughts about legitimate measurs in Punjab Pakistan compromising right of severe chance and diversity.[8]

According to examination of Muhammad Azeem Ashraf at Hunan University Changsha, China; Most of preparing labor force in Pakistan acknowledge since Pakistan is Islamic country Islam should be connected with enthusiasm so nobody however Islam can be introduced through severe tutoring, and all things considered, just fuses Sunni Islam, that essentially prompts disallowance of minority exacting thoughts from Pakistani citizenship and human rights.[12]

Course books of information projecting in Pakistan

As demonstrated by Dr Naazir Mahmood, messages books on news inclusion in Pakistan disregard to cover subjects of Critical thinking, data improvement, Freedom of talk, Gender considers, minority rights, basic freedoms, preparing prosperity and other developmental examinations, Democracy and constitutionalism etc.[13] Mahmood says in this way, mindfully or inadvertently, as opposed to tending to, Pakistani scholars end up passing on forward jingoistic, independent and prejudiced records, endorsing and regardless, propelling scorn talk and sectarianism against severe minorities in Pakistan.[13]

 

Examination

In a 1995 paper circulated in the International Journal of Middle East Studies, that focused in on an as of late planned subject of 'Pakistan Studies', understudy of history Ayesha Jalal notes huge levels of imaginative imagining in the creation of the state historiography, to remove a public past reliant on overbearing characteristics. She remarked of Pakistan's arrangement of encounters course books to be among the best available hotspots for assessing the nexus among power and obsession, in the regard and noted of an unbendable state-controlled preparing system and instructive arrangement, which absorbed this revisionist history among the dominant part, to satisfy its public ideology.[14]

 

Essayists vacillate by and large, as to developing a time frame of the improvement of the nation state; in what Jalal considers as significant occasions of story disorders moving from pressures between the way of thinking of Muslim energy and the geographical requirements of the Pakistani nation state.[14] Whilst some compartment Islamic ideologists discover the time-frame to contrast and the presentation of Islam on the Arabian projection and choose to dismiss the spatial and common distance between the two non-facilitated happenings, others select a sub-territory approach.[14] An Introduction to Pakistan Studies, (a notable perusing material which is essential scrutinizing for first and second year understudies perusing for a F.A degree ever), instances of Pakistan being an Islamic State which is managed by Allah and is definitely not a straightforward land substance anyway a way of thinking reflecting a remarkable advancement and culture, that was a consequence of a push to restrict the weight of Hindu Nationalism on Muslim masses and ward the deceitful demonstrations of Hinduism.[14] Another course book – A Text Book of Pakistan Studies ensures that Pakistan "came to be set up suddenly when the Arabs under Mohammad canister Qasim included Sindh and Multan'" and from that point on compares the Indian subcontinent with Pakistan, whose most conspicuous ruler is thusly viewed as Aurangzeb.[14] Anti-Indian suspicions, joined with against Hindu inclinations blends these issues.[14] K. Ali's two volume history expected for B.A. understudies, even while following the pre-history of the 'Indo-Pakistan' subcontinent to the Paleolithic Age and analyzing the Dravidians and the Aryans, dependably insinuates the post-1947 unsettled areas of Pakistan.[14] At the end, he reinforces the presence of the nation state, taking into account a severe way of thinking, considering a need to vaccinate themselves from (asserted) Hindu hostility appeared to the Muslims during the Independence fight and how the subcontinent was regulated by Muslims for centuries.[14] Scholars like Jameel Jalibi questions the authenticity of any open history that makes reference to Pakistan's "pre-Islamic past".[14] Jalal observes Ali's affirmations to set up responsive exacting fanaticism, as a reason of Pakistan's statehood.[14] Secularism, Communism et al are painted as terrible perils to the state and Jalal observes a course perusing wherein Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was depicted as a rich, characterless and an un-Islami-objected to man, thoughtfulness his sociopolitical leanings towards communism anyway Zia ul Hak and his abusive military framework is extensively recognized for his abidance by Islamic ideologies.[14] thinking about the Balochs, Sindhis et al being dynamically vocal about their commonplace culture, one course perusing recognizes regionalism as a "perilous episode".[14] It continues to determine that attempts to advance 'nearby languages and legends' was an attack on the very foundations of the state and that Punjabism will never be allowed to override the Islamic culture, since it's ally figures had fought against Islamic rulers.Textbooks as regularly as conceivable demonstrate Urdu to be superior to neighborhood vernaculars; a pennant transporter of total Islamic identity.

Q.5 Critically examine "the emergence theory of intelligent design" Also discuss how this theory is helpful for biology textbooks?

Ans:- intelligent design (ID) is a pseudoscientific argument for the existence of God, presented by its proponents as "an evidence-based scientific theory about life's origins".[1][2][3][4][5] Proponents claim that "certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause, not an undirected process such as natural selection."[6] ID is a form of creationism that lacks empirical support and offers no testable or tenable hypotheses, and is therefore not science.[7][8][9] The leading proponents of ID are associated with the Discovery Institute, a Christian, politically conservative think tank based in the United States.[n 1]

Though the phrase intelligent design had featured previously in theological discussions of the argument from design,[10] its first publication in its present use as an alternative term for creationism was in Of Pandas and People,[11][12] a 1989 creationist textbook intended for high school biology classes. The term was substituted into drafts of the book, directly replacing references to creation science and creationism, after the 1987 Supreme Court's Edwards v. Aguillard decision barred the teaching of creation science in public schools on constitutional grounds.[13] From the mid-1990s, the intelligent design movement (IDM), supported by the Discovery Institute,[14] advocated inclusion of intelligent design in public school biology curricula.[7] This led to the 2005 Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District trial, which found that intelligent design was not science, that it "cannot uncouple itself from its creationist, and thus religious, antecedents," and that the public school district's promotion of it therefore violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.[15]

ID presents two main arguments against evolutionary explanations: irreducible complexity and specified complexity, asserting that certain biological and informational features of living things are too complex to be the result of natural selection. Detailed scientific examination has rebutted several examples for which evolutionary explanations are claimed to be impossible.

ID seeks to challenge the methodological naturalism inherent in modern science,[2][16] though proponents concede that they have yet to produce a scientific theory.[17] As a positive argument against evolution, ID proposes an analogy between natural systems and human artifacts, a version of the theological argument from design for the existence of God.[1][n 2] ID proponents then conclude by analogy that the complex features, as defined by ID, are evidence of design.[18][n 3] Critics of ID find a false dichotomy in the premise that evidence against evolution constitutes evidence for design.[19][20]

See also: Creation science, Teleological argument, and Watchmaker analogy

In 1910, evolution was not a topic of major religious controversy in America, but in the 1920s, the Fundamentalist–Modernist Controversy in theology resulted in Fundamentalist Christian opposition to teaching evolution, and the origins of modern creationism.[21] Teaching of evolution was effectively suspended in U.S. public schools until the 1960s, and when evolution was then reintroduced into the curriculum, there was a series of court cases in which attempts were made to get creationism taught alongside evolution in science classes. Young Earth creationists (YEC) promoted creation science as "an alternative scientific explanation of the world in which we live". This frequently invoked the argument from design to explain complexity in nature as demonstrating the existence of God.[18]

The argument from design, also known as the teleological argument or "argument from intelligent design", has been advanced in theology for centuries.[22] It can be summarised briefly as "Wherever complex design exists, there must have been a designer; nature is complex; therefore nature must have had an intelligent designer." Thomas Aquinas presented it in his fifth proof of God's existence as a syllogism.[n 2] In 1802, William Paley's Natural Theology presented examples of intricate purpose in organisms. His version of the watchmaker analogy argued that, in the same way that a watch has evidently been designed by a craftsman, complexity and adaptation seen in nature must have been designed, and the perfection and diversity of these designs shows the designer to be omnipotent, the Christian God.[23] Like creation science, intelligent design centers on Paley's religious argument from design,[18] but while Paley's natural theology was open to deistic design through God-given laws, intelligent design seeks scientific confirmation of repeated miraculous interventions in the history of life.[21] Creation science prefigured the intelligent design arguments of irreducible complexity, even featuring the bacterial flagellum. In the United States, attempts to introduce creation science in schools led to court rulings that it is religious in nature, and thus cannot be taught in public school science classrooms. Intelligent design is also presented as science, and shares other arguments with creation science but avoids literal Biblical references to such things as the Flood story from the Book of Genesis or using Bible verses to age the Earth.[18]

Barbara Forrest writes that the intelligent design movement began in 1984 with the book The Mystery of Life's Origin: Reassessing Current Theories, co-written by creationist Charles B. Thaxton, a chemist, with two other authors, and published by Jon A. Buell's Foundation for Thought and Ethics.[24]

In March 1986, Stephen C. Meyer published a review of the book, discussing how information theory could suggest that messages transmitted by DNA in the cell show "specified complexity" specified by intelligence, and must have originated with an intelligent agent.[25] He also argued that science is based upon "foundational assumptions" of naturalism which were as much a matter of faith as those of "creation theory".[26] In November of that year, Thaxton described his reasoning as a more sophisticated form of Paley's argument from design.[27] At the "Sources of Information Content in DNA" conference which Thaxton held in 1988, he said that his intelligent cause view was compatible with both metaphysical naturalism and supernaturalism.[28]

Intelligent design avoids identifying or naming the intelligent designer—it merely states that one (or more) must exist—but leaders of the movement have said the designer is the Christian God.[29][n 4][n 5] Whether this lack of specificity about the designer's identity in public discussions is a genuine feature of the concept, or just a posture taken to avoid alienating those who would separate religion from the teaching of science, has been a matter of great debate between supporters and critics of intelligent design. The Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District court ruling held the latter to be the case.

Origin of the term

See also: Timeline of intelligent design

Since the Middle Ages, discussion of the religious "argument from design" or "teleological argument" in theology, with its concept of "intelligent design", has persistently referred to the theistic Creator God. Although ID proponents chose this provocative label for their proposed alternative to evolutionary explanations, they have de-emphasized their religious antecedents and denied that ID is natural theology, while still presenting ID as supporting the argument for the existence of God.[10][30]

While intelligent design proponents have pointed out past examples of the phrase intelligent design that they said were not creationist and faith-based, they have failed to show that these usages had any influence on those who introduced the label in the intelligent design movement.[30][31][32]

Variations on the phrase appeared in Young Earth creationist publications: a 1967 book co-written by Percival Davis referred to "design according to which basic organisms were created". In 1970, A. E. Wilder-Smith published The Creation of Life: A Cybernetic Approach to Evolution which defended Paley's design argument with computer calculations of the improbability of genetic sequences, which he said could not be explained by evolution but required "the abhorred necessity of divine intelligent activity behind nature", and that "the same problem would be expected to beset the relationship between the designer behind nature and the intelligently designed part of nature known as man." In a 1984 article as well as in his affidavit to Edwards v. Aguillard, Dean H. Kenyon defended creation science by stating that "biomolecular systems require intelligent design and engineering know-how", citing Wilder-Smith. Creationist Richard B. Bliss used the phrase "creative design" in Origins: Two Models: Evolution, Creation (1976), and in Origins: Creation or Evolution (1988) wrote that "while evolutionists are trying to find non-intelligent ways for life to occur, the creationist insists that an intelligent design must have been there in the first place."[33][34] The first systematic use of the term, defined in a glossary ad claimed to be other than creationism, was in Of Pandas and People, co-authored by Davis and Kenyon.[31]

Of Pandas and People

Main article: Of Pandas and People

Use of the terms "creationism" versus "intelligent design" in sequential drafts of the book Of Pandas and People.[11]

The most common modern use of the words "intelligent design" as a term intended to describe a field of inquiry began after the United States Supreme Court ruled in June 1987 in the case of Edwards v. Aguillard that it is unconstitutional for a state to require the teaching of creatioism in public school science curricula.[11]

A Discovery Institute report says that Charles B. Thaxton, editor of Pandas, had picked the phrase up from a NASA scientist, and thought, "That's just what I need, it's a good engineering term."[35] In two successive 1987 drafts of the book, over one hundred uses of the root word "creation", such as "creationism" and "Creation Science", were changed, almost without exception, to "intelligent design",[12] while "creationists" was changed to "design proponents" or, in one instance, "cdesign proponentsists" [sic].[11] In June 1988, Thaxton held a conference titled "Sources of Information Content in DNA" in Tacoma, Washington.[28] Stephen C. Meyer was at the conference, and later recalled that "The term intelligent design came up..."[36] In December 1988 Thaxton decided to use the label "intelligent design" for his new creationist movement.[24]

Of Pandas and People was published in 1989, and in addition to including all the current arguments for ID, was the first book to make systematic use of the terms "intelligent design" and "design proponents" as well as the phrase "design theory", defining the term intelligent design in a glossary and representing it as not being creationism. It thus represents the start of the modern intelligent design movement.[11][31][37] "Intelligent design" was the most prominent of around fifteen new terms it introduced as a new lexicon of creationist terminology to oppose evolution without using religious language.[38] It was the first place where the phrase "intelligent design" appeared in its primary present use, as stated both by its publisher Jon A. Buell,[18][39] and by William A. Dembski in his expert witness report for Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District.[40]

The National Center for Science Education (NCSE) has criticized the book for presenting all of the basic arguments of intelligent design proponents and being actively promoted for use in public schools before any research had been done to support these arguments.[37] Although presented as a scientific textbook, philosopher of science Michael Ruse considers the contents "worthless and dishonest".[41] An American Civil Liberties Union lawyer described it as a political tool aimed at students who did not "know science or understand the controversy over evolution and creationism". One of the authors of the science framework used by California schools, Kevin Padian, condemned it for its "sub-text", "intolerance for honest science" and "incompetence".[42]

Concepts

Irreducible complexity

Main article: Irreducible complexity

The concept of irreducible complexity was popularised by Michael Behe in his 1996 book, Darwin's Black Box.

The term "irreducible complexity" was introduced by biochemist Michael Behe in his 1996 book Darwin's Black Box, though he had already described the concept in his contributions to the 1993 revised edition of Of Pandas and People.[37] Behe defines it as "a single system which is composed of several well-matched interacting parts that contribute to the basic function, wherein the removal of any one of te parts causes the system to effectively cease functioning".[43]

Behe uses the analogy of a mousetrap to illustrate this concept. A mousetrap consists of several interacting pieces—the base, the catch, the spring and the hammer—all of which must be in place for the mousetrap to work. Removal of any one piece destroys the function of the mousetrap. Intelligent design advocates assert that natural selection could not create irreducibly complex systems, because the selectable function is present only when all parts are assembled. Behe argued that irreducibly complex biological mechanisms include the bacterial flagellum of E. coli, the blood clotting cascade, cilia, and the adaptive immune system.[44][45]

Critics point out that the irreducible complexity argument assumes that the necessary parts of a system have always been necessary and therefore could not have been added sequentially.[20] They argue that something that is at first merely advantageous can later become necessary as other components change. Furthermore, they argue, evolution often proceeds by altering preexisting parts or by removing them from a system, rather than by adding them. This is sometimes called the "scaffolding objection" by an analogy with scaffolding, which can support an "irreducibly complex" building until it is complete and able to stand on its own.[n 6] Behe has acknowledged using "sloppy prose", and that his "argument against Darwinism does not add up to a logical proof."[n 7] Irreducible complexity has remained a popular argument among advocates of intelligent design; in the Dover trial, the court held that "Professor Behe's claim for irreducible complexity has been refuted in peer-reviewed research papers and has been rejected by the scientific community at large."[19]

Specified complexity

Main article: Specified complexity

In 1986, Charles B. Thaxton, a physical chemist and creationist, used the term "specified complexity" from information theory when claiming that messages transmitted by DNA in the cell were specified by intelligence, and must have originated with an intelligent agent.[25] The intelligent design concept of "specified complexity" was developed in the 1990s by mathematician, philosopher, and theologian William A. Dembski.[46] Dembski states that when something exhibits specified complexity (i.e., is both complex and "specified", simultaneously), one can infer that it was produced by an intelligent cause (i.e., that it was designed) rather than being the result of natural processes. He provides the following examples: "A single letter of the alphabet is specified without being complex. A long sentence of random letters is complex without being specified. A Shakespearean sonnet is both complex and specified."[47] He states that details of living things can be similarly characterized, especially the "patterns" of molecular sequences in functional biological molecules such as D

William A. Dembski proposed the concept of specified complexity.[48]

Dembski defines complex specified information (CSI) as anything with a less than 1 in 10150 chance of occurring by (natural) chance. Critics say that this renders the argument a tautology: complex specified information cannot occur naturally because Dembski has defined it thus, so the real question becomes whether or not CSI actually exists in nature.[49][n 8][50]

The conceptual soundness of Dembski's specified complexity/CSI argument has been discredited in the scientific and mathematical communities.Specified complexity has yet to be shown to have wide applications in other fields, as Dembski asserts. John Wilkins and Wesley R. Elsberry characterize Dembski's "explanatory filter" as eliminative because it eliminates explanations sequentially: first regularity, then chance, finally defaulting to design. They argue that this procedure is flawed as a model for scientific inference because the asymmetric way it treats the different possible explanations renders it prone to making false conclusions.

Richard Dawkins, another critic of intelligent design, argues in The God Delusion (2006) that allowing for an intelligent designer to account for unlikely complexity only postpones the problem, as such a designer would need to be at least as complex.[54] Other scientists have argued that evolution through selection is better able to explain the observed complexity, as is evident from the use of selective evolution to design certain electronic, aeronautic and automotive systems that are considered problems too complex for human "intelligent designers".

Intelligent design proponents have also occasionally appealed to broader teleological arguments outside of biology, most notably an argument based on the fine-tuning of universal constants that make matter and life possible and which are argued not to be solely attributable to chance. These include the values of fundamental physical constants, the relative strength of nuclear forces, electromagnetism, and gravity between fundamental particles, as well as the ratios of masses of such particles. Intelligent design proponent and Center for Science and Culture fellow Guillermo Gonzalez argues that if any of these values were even slightly different, the universe would be dramatically different, making it impossible for many chemical elements and features of the Universe, such as galaxies, to form.[56] Thus, proponents argue, an intelligent designer of life was needed to ensure that the requisite features were present to achieve that particular outcome.

Biology

Inte Biology is the natural science that studies life and living organisms, including their physical structure, chemical processes, molecular interactions, physiological mechanisms, development and evolution.[1] Despite the complexity of the science, certain unifying concepts consolidate it into a single, coherent field. Biology recognizes the cell as the basic unit of life, genes as the basic unit of heredity, and evolution as the engine that propels the creation and extinction of species. Living organisms are open systems that survive by transforming energy and decreasing their local entropy[2] to maintain a stable and vital condition defined as homeostasis.[3]

 

Sub-disciplines of biology are defined by the research methods employed and the kind of system studied: theoretical biology uses mathematical methods to formulate quantitative models while experimental biology performs empirical experiments to test the validity of proposed theories and understand the mechanisms underlying life and how it appeared and evolved from non-living matter about 4 billion years ago through a gradual increase in the complexity of the system.[4][5][6]

 

 

"Biology" derives from the Ancient Greek words of βίος; romanized bíos meaning "life" and -λογία; romanized logía (-logy) meaning "branch of study" or "to speak". [7][8] Those combined make the Greek word βιολογία; romanized biología meaning biology. Despite this, the term βιολογία as a whole didn't exist in Ancient Greek. The first to borrow it was the English and French (biologie). Historically there was another term for "biology" in English, lifelore; it is rarely used today.

 

The Latin-language form of the term first appeared in 1736 when Swedish scientist Carl Linnaeus (Carl von Linné) used biologi in his Bibliotheca Botanica. It was used again in 1766 in a work entitled Philosophiae naturalis sive physicae: tomus III, continens geologian, biologian, phytologian generalis, by Michael Christoph Hanov, a disciple of Christian Wolff. The first German use, Biologie, was in a 1771 translation of Linnaeus' work. In 1797, Theodor Georg August Roose used the term in the preface of a book, Grundzüge der Lehre van der Lebenskraft. Karl Friedrich Burdach used the term in 1800 in a more restricted sense of the study of human beings from a morphological, physiological and psychological perspective (Propädeutik zum Studien der gesammten Heilkunst). The term came into its modern usage with the six-volume treatise Biologie, oder Philosophie der lebenden Natur (1802–22) by Gottfried Reinhold Treviranus, who announced:[9]

 

The objects of our research will be the different forms and manifestations of life, the conditions and laws under which these phenomena occur, and the causes through which they have been affected. The science that concerns itself with these objects we will indicate by the name biology [Biologie] or the doctrine of life [Lebenslehre].

History

Main article: History of biology

A drawing of a fly from facing up, with wing detail

A Diagram of a fly from Robert Hooke's innovative Micrographia, 1665

Ernst Haeckel's pedigree of Man family tree from Evolution of Man

Ernst Haeckel's Tree of Life (1879)

Although modern biology is a relatively recent development, sciences related to and included within it have been studied since ancient times. Natural philosophy was studied as early as the ancient civilizations of Mesopotamia, Egypt, the Indian subcontinent, and China. However, the origins of modern biology and its approach to the study of nature are most often traced back to ancient Greece.[10][11] While the formal study of medicine dates back to Pharaonic Egypt, it was Aristotle (384–322 BC) who contributed most extensively to the development of biology. Especially important are his History of Animals and other works where he showed naturalist leanings, and later more empirical works that focused on biological causation and the diversity of life. Aristotle's successor at the Lyceum, Theophrastus, wrote a series of books on botany that survived as the most important contribution of antiquity to the plant sciences, even into the Middle Ages.[12]

 

Scholars of the medieval Islamic world who wrote on biology included al-Jahiz (781–869), Al-Dīnawarī (828–896), who wrote on botany,[13] and Rhazes (865–925) who wrote on anatomy and physiology. Medicine was especially well studied by Islamic scholars working in Greek philosopher traditions, while natural history drew heavily on Aristotelian thought, especially in upholding a fixed hierarchy of life.

Biology began to quickly develop and grow with Anton van Leeuwenhoek's dramatic improvement of the microscope. It was then that scholars discovered spermatozoa, bacteria, infusoria and the diversity of microscopic life. Investigations by Jan Swammerdam led to new interest in entomology and helped to develop the basic techniques of microscopic dissection and staining.[14]

Advances in microscopy also had a profound impact on biological thinking. In the early 19th century, a number of biologists pointed to the central importance of the cell. Then, in 1838, Schleiden and Schwann began promoting the now universal ideas that (1) the basic unit of organisms is the cell and (2) that individual cells have all the characteristics of life, although they opposed the idea that (3) all cells come from the division of other cells. Thanks to the work of Robert Remak and Rudolf Virchow, however, by the 1860s most biologists accepted all three tents of what came to be known as cell theory.[15][16]

Meanwhile, taxonomy and classification became the focus of natural historians. Carl Linnaeus published a basic taxonomy for the natural world in 1735 (variations of which have been in use ever since), and in the 1750s introduced scientific names for all his species.[17] Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon, treated species as artificial categories and living forms as malleable—even suggesting the possibility of common descent. Although he was opposed to evolution, Buffon is a key figure in the history of evolutionary thought; his work influenced the evolutionary theories of both Lamarck and Darwin.[18]

Serious evolutionary thinking originated with the works of Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, who was the first to present a coherent theory of evolution.[19] He posited that evolution was the result of environmental stress on properties of animals, meaning that the more frequently and rigorously an organ was used, the more complex and efficient it would become, thus adapting the animal to its environment. Lamarck believed that these acquired traits could then be passed on to the animal's offspring, who would further develop and perfect them.[20] However, it was the British naturalist Charles Darwin, combining the biogeographical approach of Humboldt, the uniformitarian geology of Lyell, Malthus's writings on population growth, and his own morphological expertise and extensive natural observations, who forged a more successful evolutionary theory based on natural selection; similar reasoning and evidence led Alfred Russel Wallace to independently reach the same conclusions.[21][22] Although it was the subject of controversy (which continues to this day), Darwin's theory quickly spread through the scientific community and soon became a central axiom of the rapidly developing science of biology.

The discovery of the physical representation of heredity came along with evolutionary principles and population genetics. In the 1940s and early 1950s, experiments pointed to DNA as the component of chromosomes that held the trait-carrying units that had become known as genes. A focus on new kinds of model organisms such as viruses and bacteria, along with the discovery of the double-helical structure of DNA in 1953, marked the transition to the era of molecular genetics. From the 1950s to the present times, biology has been vastly extended in the molecular domain. The genetic code was cracked by Har Gobind Khorana, Robert W. Holley and Marshall Warren Nirenberg after DNA was understood to contain codons. Finally, the Human Genome Project was launched in 1990 with the goal of mapping the general human genome. This project was essentially completed in 2003,[23] with further analysis still being published. The Human Genome Project was the first step in a globalized effort to incorporate accumulated knowledge of biology into a functional, molecular definition of the human body and the bodies of other organisms.

 

Foundations of modern biology

Cell theory

HeLa cells stained with Hoechst blue stain.

HeLa cells with nuclei (specifically the DNA) stained blue. The central and rightmost cells are in interphase, so the entire nuclei are labeled. The cell on the left is going through mitosis and its DNA has condensed.

Main article: Cell theory

Cell theory states that the cell is the fundamental unit of life, that all living things are composed of one or more cells, and that all cells arise from pre-existing cells through cell division. In multicellular organisms, every cell in the organism's body derives ultimately from a single cell in a fertilized egg. The cell is also considered to be the basic unit in many pathological processes.[24] In addition, the phenomenon of energy flow occurs in cells in processes that are part of the function known as metabolism. Finally, cells contain hereditary information (DNA), which is passed from cell to cell during cell division. Research into the origin of life, abiogenesis, amounts to an attempt to discover the origin of the first cells.

A central organizing concept in biology is that life changes and develops through evolution, and that all life-forms known have a common origin. The theory of evolution postulates that all organisms on the Earth, both living and extinct, have descended from a common ancestor or an ancestral gene pool. This universal common ancestor of all organisms is believed to have appeared about 3.5 billion years ago.[25] Biologists regard the ubiquity of the genetic code as definitive evidence in favor of the theory of universal common descent for all bacteria, archaea, and eukaryotes (see: origin of life).

The term "evolution" was introduced into the scientific lexicon by Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck in 1809,[27] and fifty years later Charles Darwin posited a scientific model of natural selection as evolution's driving force.[28][29][30] (Alfred Russel Wallace is recognized as the co-discoverer of this concept as he helped research and experiment with the concept of evolution.)[31] Evolution is now used to explain the great variations of life found on Earth.