Placing Man in the System

The one question that intrigues us more than any other question is the metaphysical ' Who are we? Why are we here? Are we real? ' . Answers to these questions are confounded and no concrete solution has yet been found.

But the derivatives of the question can be partly answered. For e.g. The questions after the formation of the first living organism. ' How had the complex human structure formed? How do we divide the living organisms into various categories? Which category do we belong to? ' The Greek legend Aristotle divided life into animals and plants and further divided animals into red blooded and other colored blood. But this was an abstract division in which the study of two heterogenous groups becomes too complicated. The precise division is the one in which the proper lineage of organisms can be followed i.e. we can chalk out our ancestors. So came the theory of dividing the organisms into phyla. These divisons provide the descendary of man or any other animal.

The division of phyla can explain questions like 'When did life come on land? Why are Whales closely related to us than the fish? How/Why has the embryo formed?' and so on.

(Coutesy - Isaac Asimov - The Human Body, Its Structure and Operations)

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