Chapter 2 of The Sixth Extinction starts off with Kolbert pointing out how in our society children learn about extinction at a young age. She discusses Aristotle's book History of Animals and explains that Aristotle never considered the possibility that there are extinct species. This made me think about how educated children are in the present compared to people in the past. We have advanced to a time where complex information is easier to grasp. Kolbert also discusses that neither the Renaissance or the Middle Ages had the idea that there was extinction. The Enlightenment era was no different - species were linked to a "chain of being." Naturalist Georges Cuvier was able to introduce the idea of extinction. Though many of his ideas were discredited, his recent discoveries supported his theories. Cuvier worked at the Paris Museum of Natural History as a lecturer. In one of his lectures, he spoke about the mastodon fossils that were found in Ohio and compared them to similar fossils that were found in Russia. He then proposed the theory that they were "lost creatures." Although Cuvier was ridiculed when he was alive, his theories were found to be true as time passed on. This connects to the theme that science is a process. Over time, ideas that were thought to be foolish or lacking evidence have been proven to be true.
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