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Darwin and Design: Does Evolution Have a Purpose?

Cambridge, USA: Harvard University Press (2003)

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  1. Agential Teleosemantics.Tiago Rama - 2022 - Dissertation, Autonomous University of Barcelona
    The field of the philosophy of biology is flourishing in its aim to evaluate and rethink the view inherited from the previous century ---the Modern Synthesis. Different research areas and theories have come to the fore in the last decades in order to account for different biological phenomena that, in the first instance, fall beyond the explanatory scope of the Modern Synthesis. This thesis is anchored and motivated by this revolt in the philosophy of biology. -/- The central target in (...)
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  • Darwin filósofo.Ginnobili Santiago - 2021 - In López Orellana Rodrigo & Suárez-Ruíz Joaquín (eds.), Filosofía posdarwiniana. College Publications. pp. 85-122.
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  • Biological Teleology, Reductionism, and Verbal Disputes.Sandy C. Boucher - 2021 - Foundations of Science 26 (4):859-880.
    The extensive philosophical discussions and analyses in recent decades of function-talk in biology have done much to clarify what biologists mean when they ascribe functions to traits, but the basic metaphysical question—is there genuine teleology and design in the natural world, or only the appearance of this?—has persisted, as recent work both defending, and attacking, teleology from a Darwinian perspective, attest. I argue that in the context of standard contemporary evolutionary theory, this is for the most part a verbal, rather (...)
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  • The Challenge of Evolution to Religion.Johan De Smedt & Helen De Cruz - 2020 - Cambridge University Press.
    This Element focuses on three challenges of evolution to religion: teleology, human origins, and the evolution of religion itself. First, religious worldviews tend to presuppose a teleological understanding of the origins of living things, but scientists mostly understand evolution as non-teleological. Second, religious and scientific accounts of human origins do not align in a straightforward sense. Third, evolutionary explanations of religion, including religious beliefs and practices, may cast doubt on their justification. We show how these tensions arise and offer potential (...)
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  • Making a Theist out of Darwin: Asa Gray’s Post-Darwinian Natural Theology.T. Russell Hunter - 2012 - Science & Education 21 (7):959-975.
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  • The Evolution of Complexity.Mark Bedau - 2009 - In Barberousse Anouk, Morange M. & Pradeau T. (eds.), Mapping the Future of Biology. Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science, vol 266. Springer.
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  • Teaching Evolution While Aiming at the Cautious Middle. [REVIEW]Massimo Pigliucci - 2015 - Science & Education 24 (7-8):1043-1046.
    As astounding as it sounds, especially to people outside of the USA (and the Middle East, and much of Africa), 13 % of US high school teachers actively advocate creationism and so-called intelligent design theory in their classrooms; another 28 % does the right thing and teaches evolution, but a whopping 60 % falls in the middle: These teachers accept evolutionary theory (though they may be fuzzy on the details), and yet do not teach it in their classrooms, in order (...)
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  • Functionalism and structuralism as philosophical stances: van Fraassen meets the philosophy of biology.Sandy C. Boucher - 2015 - Biology and Philosophy 30 (3):383-403.
    I consider the broad perspectives in biology known as ‘functionalism’ and ‘structuralism’, as well as a modern version of functionalism, ‘adaptationism’. I do not take a position on which of these perspectives is preferable; my concern is with the prior question, how should they be understood? Adapting van Fraassen’s argument for treating materialism as a stance, rather than a factual belief with propositional content, in the first part of the paper I offer an argument for construing functionalism and structuralism as (...)
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  • The Design Argument in Classical Hindu Thought.C. Mackenzie Brown - 2008 - International Journal of Hindu Studies 12 (2):103-151.
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  • Re-organizing organizational accounts of function.Marc Artiga - 2011 - Applied ontology 6 (2):105-124.
    In this paper I discuss a recent theory on functions called Organizational Account. This theory seeks to provide a new definition of function that overcomes the distinction between etiological and dispositional accounts and that could be used in biology as well as in technology. I present a definition of function that I think captures the intuitions of Organizational Accounts and consider several objections.
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  • Environmental Ethics.Roberta L. Millstein - 2013 - In Kostas Kampourakis (ed.), The Philosophy of Biology: a Companion for Educators. Dordrecht: Springer.
    A number of areas of biology raise questions about what is of value in the natural environment and how we ought to behave towards it: conservation biology, environmental science, and ecology, to name a few. Based on my experience teaching students from these and similar majors, I argue that the field of environmental ethics has much to teach these students. They come to me with pent-up questions and a feeling that more is needed to fully engage in their subjects, and (...)
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  • Darwinism, Memes, and Creativity: A Critique of Darwinian Analogical Reasoning from Nature to Culture.Maria Kronfeldner - 2007 - Dissertation, University of Regensburg
    The dissertation criticizes two analogical applications of Darwinism to the spheres of mind and culture: the Darwinian approach to creativity and memetics. These theories rely on three basic analogies: the ontological analogy states that the basic ontological units of culture are so-called memes, which are replicators like genes; the origination analogy states that novelty in human creativity emerges in a "blind" Darwinian manner; and the explanatory units of selection analogy states that memes are "egoistic" and that they can spread independently (...)
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  • An organizational account of biological functions.Matteo Mossio, Cristian Saborido & Alvaro Moreno - 2009 - British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 60 (4):813-841.
    In this paper, we develop an organizational account that defines biological functions as causal relations subject to closure in living systems, interpreted as the most typical example of organizationally closed and differentiated self-maintaining systems. We argue that this account adequately grounds the teleological and normative dimensions of functions in the current organization of a system, insofar as it provides an explanation for the existence of the function bearer and, at the same time, identifies in a non-arbitrary way the norms that (...)
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  • Michael Ruse's Design for Living.Robert J. Richards - 2004 - Journal of the History of Biology 37 (1):25 - 38.
    The eminent historian and philosopher of biology, Michael Ruse, has written several books that explore the relationship of evolutionary theory to its larger scientific and cultural setting. Among the questions he has investigated are: Is evolution progressive? What is its epistemological status? Most recently, in "Darwin and Design: Does Evolution have a Purpose?," Ruse has provided a history of the concept of teleology in biological thinking, especially in evolutionary theorizing. In his book, he moves quickly from Plato and Aristotle to (...)
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  • Charles Darwin’s O n the Origin of Species.Michael Ruse - 2007 - Topoi 26 (1):159-165.
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  • The uniqueness of biological self-organization: Challenging the Darwinian paradigm.J. B. Edelmann & M. J. Denton - 2007 - Biology and Philosophy 22 (4):579-601.
    Here we discuss the challenge posed by self-organization to the Darwinian conception of evolution. As we point out, natural selection can only be the major creative agency in evolution if all or most of the adaptive complexity manifest in living organisms is built up over many generations by the cumulative selection of naturally occurring small, random mutations or variants, i.e., additive, incremental steps over an extended period of time. Biological self-organization—witnessed classically in the folding of a protein, or in the (...)
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  • The Darwinian Turn in the Understanding of Biological Environment.Gustavo Caponi - 2020 - Biological Theory 17 (1):20-35.
    The Darwinian revolution supposed and imposed a much broader and more complex concept of environment than that which, until that moment, had been considered by most as part of natural history. Until Darwin, the environment of living beings had been regarded, almost exclusively, as the inanimate surroundings. This pre-Darwinian notion of environment included physicochemical and climatic variables: the living beings themselves were scarcely considered, or they were regarded just as food to be assimilated. In contrast, with Darwin, the influence of (...)
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  • El adaptacionismo como corolario de la teoría de la selección natural.Gustavo Caponi - 2010 - Endoxa 24:123.
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  • The metaphor of the architect in Darwin: Chance and free will.Ricardo Noguera-Solano - 2013 - Zygon 48 (4):859-874.
    In The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication, published in 1868, Darwin used the metaphor of the architect to argue in favor of natural autonomy and to clarify the role of chance in his theory of adaptive change by variation and natural selection. In this article, I trace the history of this important heuristic instrument in Darwin's writings and letters and suggest that this metaphor was important to Darwin because it helps him to explain the role of chance, and (...)
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  • (1 other version)Against Formal Causation in Non-conscious Nature.Arthur Ward - 2011 - History of Philosophy & Logical Analysis 14 (1):170-184.
    The problem of natural teleology in biology has traditionally focused on reconciling Aristotle’s efficient and final causation. In this paper, however, I emphasize the importance of formal causation in natural teleological explanations and suggest that undermining its legitimacy is a backdoor route to undermining natural teleology itself. Formal causation, I argue, represents the “phenotype” of an object, to use a familiar word from genetics. This means that formal causes specify not only intrinsic “genotypic” qualities of an object but also a (...)
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  • From Ends to Causes (and Back Again) by Metaphor: The Paradox of Natural Selection.Stefaan Blancke, Tammy Schellens, Ronald Soetaert, Hilde Van Keer & Johan Braeckman - 2014 - Science & Education 23 (4):793-808.
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  • A relic of design: against proper functions in biology.Emanuele Ratti & Pierre-Luc Germain - 2022 - Biology and Philosophy 37 (4):1-28.
    The notion of biological function is fraught with difficulties—intrinsically and irremediably so, we argue. The physiological practice of functional ascription originates from a time when organisms were thought to be designed and remained largely unchanged since. In a secularized worldview, this creates a paradox which accounts of functions as selected effect attempt to resolve. This attempt, we argue, misses its target in physiology and it brings problems of its own. Instead, we propose that a better solution to the conundrum of (...)
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  • Evolution and ethics viewed from within two metaphors: machine and organism.Michael Ruse - 2022 - History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences 44 (1):1-17.
    How is moral thinking, ethics, related to evolutionary theorizing? There are two approaches, epitomized by Charles Darwin who works under the metaphor of the world as a machine, and by Herbert Spencer who works under the metaphor of the world as an organism. Although the author prefers the first approach, the aim of this paper is to give a disinterested account of both approaches.
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  • The ‘Division of Physiological Labour’: The Birth, Life and Death of a Concept.Emmanuel D’Hombres - 2012 - Journal of the History of Biology 45 (1):3-31.
    The notion of the ‘division of physiological labour’ is today an outdated relic in the history of science. This contrasts with the fate of another notion, which was so frequently paired with the division of physiological labour, which is the concept of ‘morphological differentiation.’ This is one of the elementary modal concepts of ontogenesis. In this paper, we intend to target the problems and causes that gradually led biologists to combine these two notions during the 19th century, and to progressively (...)
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  • The Darwinian Revolution, as seen in 1979 and as seen Twenty-Five Years Later in 2004.Michael Ruse - 2005 - Journal of the History of Biology 38 (1):3-17.
    My book, "The Darwinian Revolution" gives an overview of the revolution as understood at the time of its writing (1979). It shows that many factors were involved, from straight science through philosophical methodology, and on to religious influences and challenges. Also of importance were social factors, not the least of which was the professionalization of science in Britain in the 19th century. Since the appearance of that book, new, significant factors have become apparent, and here I discuss some of the (...)
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  • The critique of intelligent design: Epicurus, Marx, Darwin, and Freud and the materialist defense of science. [REVIEW]Brett Clark, John Bellamy Foster & Richard York - 2007 - Theory and Society 36 (6):515-546.
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  • (1 other version)Making room for faith in an age of science: A response to David Wisdo.Michael Ruse - 2011 - Zygon 46 (3):655-672.
    Abstract. I respond to the criticisms of David Wisdo of my position on the relationship between science and religion. I argue that although he gives a full and fair account of my position, he fails to grasp fully my use of the metaphorical basis of modern science in my argument that, because of its mechanistic commitment, there are some questions that science not only does not answer but that science does not even attempt to answer. Hence, my position stands and (...)
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  • Evolución y relato: más allá del neodarwinismo y el diseño inteligente.Manuel Cruz Ortiz de Landázuri - 2022 - Scientia et Fides 10 (1):29-48.
    Evolution and Story: Beyond Neo-Darwinism and Intelligent Design This article analyses evolution from a philosophical perspective, contrasting the problems raised by both Neo-Darwinism and Intelligent Design theory. First, I discuss some of the problems that Synthetic theory presents from a scientific point of view, as well as the philosophical problems involved in the Neo-Darwinism of Dawkins, Dennett, Monod and Ruse. I argue that Neo-Darwinism, although presented as a scientific doctrine, is in fact fundamentally philosophical, and presents some important problems that (...)
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  • Responses and Clarifications Regarding Science and Worldviews.Hugh G. Gauch - 2009 - Science & Education 18 (6-7):905-927.
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  • Does God play dice? insights from the fractal geometry of nature.Paul H. Carr - 2004 - Zygon 39 (4):933-940.
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  • (1 other version)Special Issue: Philosophical Considerations in the Teaching of Biology. Part II, Evolution, Development and Genetics.Kostas Kampourakis (ed.) - 2013 - Springer (Science & Education).
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  • Non-backward-looking Naturalness as an Environmental Value.Helena Siipi - 2011 - Ethics, Policy and Environment 14 (3):329 - 344.
    Ethics, Policy & Environment, Volume 14, Issue 3, Page 329-344, October 2011.
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  • (1 other version)Life and the Homeostatic Organization View of Biological Phenomena.Robert Arp - 2008 - Cosmos and History : The Journal of Natural and Social Philosophy 4 (1-2):260-285.
    p style="text-indent: 0cm; line-height: normal" class="MsoBodyTextIndent3"span style="font-size: 11pt"In this paper, I argue that starting with the organelles that constitute a cellmdash;and continuing up the hierarchy of components in processes and subsystems of an organismmdash;there exist clear instances of emergent biological phenomena that can be considered ldquo;livingrdquo; entities.spannbsp; /spanThese components and their attending processes are living emergent phenomena because of the way in which the components are organized to maintain homeostasis of the organism at the various levels in the hierarchy.spannbsp; /spanI (...)
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  • Evolution and Two Popular Proposals for the Definition of Function.Robert Arp - 2007 - Journal for General Philosophy of Science / Zeitschrift für Allgemeine Wissenschaftstheorie 38 (1):19-30.
    In the biological realm, a complete explanation of a trait seems to include an explanation in terms of function. It is natural to ask of some trait, "What is its function?" or "What purpose in the organism does the particular trait serve?" or "What is the goal of its activity?" There are several views concerning the appropriate definition of function for biological matters. Two popular views of function with respect to living things are Cummins' organizational account and the Griffiths/Godfrey-Smith modern (...)
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  • Naturalness in biological conservation.Helena Siipi - 2004 - Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics 17 (6):457-477.
    Conservation scientists are arguing whether naturalness provides a reasonable imperative for conservation. To clarify this debate and the interpretation of the term natural, I analyze three management strategies – ecosystem preservation, ecosystem restoration, and ecosystem engineering – with respect to the naturalness of their outcomes. This analysis consists in two parts. First, the ambiguous term natural is defined in a variety of ways, including (1) naturalness as that which is part of nature, (2) naturalness as a contrast to artifactuality, (3) (...)
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  • (1 other version)Darwinian perspectives on the human mind and behavior: scope, limitations and educational implications.Leonardo González Galli - 2019 - Humanities Journal of Valparaiso 14:187-222.
    In this work I characterize Darwinian approaches to human behavior and mind, especially evolutionary psychology, and analyze the main criticisms that these approaches have received. To this end I resort to Jean Marie Schaeffer’s criticism of the thesis of human exceptionality and the semantic perspective of scientific theories of Ronald Giere. I conclude that the main criticisms are not applicable to evolutionary psychology as a research program. I also conclude that it cannot be held a priori that the Darwinian approach (...)
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  • The Implications of the Cognitive Sciences for the Relation Between Religion and Science Education: The Case of Evolutionary Theory.Stefaan Blancke, Johan De Smedt, Helen De Cruz, Maarten Boudry & Johan Braeckman - 2012 - Science & Education 21 (8):1167-1184.
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  • Darwinism Then and Now: The Divide Over Form and Function.Michael Ruse - 2010 - Science & Education 19 (4-5):367-389.
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  • Adaptationism.Steven Hecht Orzack - 2010 - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
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  • Forty Years a Philosopher of Biology: Why EvoDevo Makes Me Still Excited About My Subject.Michael Ruse - 2006 - Biological Theory 1 (1):35-37.
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  • My Journey in the World of Religion-and-Science.Michael Ruse - 2007 - Zygon 42 (3):577-582.
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  • Darwin’s Perplexing Paradox: Intelligent Design in Nature.Steinar Thorvaldsen & Peter Øhrstrøm - 2013 - Perspectives in Biology and Medicine 56 (1):78-98.
    Much has been written through the years of the clash between Darwinism and natural theology, and the basic tenants of this debate are well understood (Gillispie 1959; Bowler 1977; Ruse 2003; McGrath 2011). However, the literature is still growing, and one may wonder if anything new may yet be added. Of these new literary sources, one of the richest is the online Darwin Correspondence Project, which makes it possible to search and read the full texts of all correspondence either sent (...)
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  • Plumbing the Depths: A Recovery of Natural Law and Natural Wisdom in the Context of Debates about Evolutionary Purpose.Celia Deane-Drummond - 2007 - Zygon 42 (4):981-998.
    I argue that the theological traditions of natural law and wisdom offer helpful meeting points in discussions about evolutionary “purpose” and contingency in relation to theological purpose, and serve to form the basis for a theology of nature. Natural law offers a way of describing the ordered action of God toward complexity in a contingent world without using the language of either “design” or “progress.” The theological tradition of wisdom as implicit in the natural world, learned in the human community, (...)
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  • The Current Status of the Philosophy of Biology.Peter Takacs & Michael Ruse - 2013 - Science & Education 22 (1):5-48.
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  • A Conceptual Analysis of Evolutionary Theory for Teacher Education.Esther M. van Dijk & Thomas A. C. Reydon - 2010 - Science & Education 19 (6-8):655-677.
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  • Teilhard de chardin's evolutionary natural theology.David Grumett - 2007 - Zygon 42 (2):519-534.
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