Theoretical Anatomy - Part 2
Understanding human bodies
When we left her last (in Part 1), Crivsola was trying to find observations to choose between the following two models of the human body:
The model on the left says that the food falls to the bottom of the body and piles on itself. The model on the right suggests a sack that the food drops into. Crivsola spent the whole night thinking about the implications of these two models and what observations would allow her to choose between them.
She couldn’t think of any observation that would allow her to decide between these two models. So, she decided to move on to common aspects of the two models.
The move Crivsola made here of focusing on the common aspects of the two models is an important one. At this point, maybe both models are a terrible representation of the human body. However, it is at least the case that both the models are incomplete.
So, rather than getting stuck on this choice, you could work on rejecting or refining both models if you focus on the aspects in common.
One implication of both the models is that if a person stands on their head, the food will fall out of their mouth - there is no reason why the opening that allows food in would not let it out.
Then Crivsola thought back to her childhood and to the parties her parents used to throw in their cave. She remembered that her father had once done a headstand after a long night of eating and drinking. Then, just as he got into position, a lot of stuff suddenly spurted out of his mouth.
So, maybe both models pass this test - perhaps it is the case that the opening which allows food in also allows it out and there is nothing to stop the food from exiting. Crivsola’s intuition suggested that was wrong. But she had found this example of this happening. Wasn’t that enough justification?
Stay tuned for Crivsola’s next step. Given your experiences, I’m assuming you agree that there is something wrong with the two models on this basis. But, what is wrong with the reasoning that Crivsola used to conclude that nothing stops the food from exiting? Think about that before reading Part 3!