On Purpose / Michael Ruse.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Ruse, Michael, 1940- autore.

Series:

Princeton scholarship online.

Princeton scholarship online

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Human ecology.

Philosophical anthropology.

Process philosophy.

Process theology.

Reason--History.

Reason.

Genre:

Filosofia. Antropologia filosofica -- Saggi, varia.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (296 pages)

Place of Publication:

Princeton, NJ : Princeton University Press, [2017]

Language Note:

In English.

System Details:

Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Summary:

A brief, accessible history of the idea of purpose in Western thought, from ancient Greece to the present. Can we live without the idea of purpose? Should we even try to? Kant thought we were stuck with purpose, and even Darwin's theory of natural selection, which profoundly shook the idea, was unable to kill it. Indeed, teleological explanation-what Aristotle called understanding in terms of "final causes"-seems to be making a comeback today, as both religious proponents of intelligent design and some prominent secular philosophers argue that any explanation of life without the idea of purpose is missing something essential. In On Purpose, Michael Ruse explores the history of the idea of purpose in philosophical, religious, scientific, and historical thought, from ancient Greece to the present. Accessibly written and filled with literary and other examples, the book examines "purpose" thinking in the natural and human world. It shows how three ideas about purpose have been at the heart of Western thought for more than two thousand years. In the Platonic view, purpose results from the planning of a human or divine being; in the Aristotelian, purpose stems from a tendency or principle of order in the natural world; and in the Kantian, purpose is essentially heuristic, or something to be discovered, an idea given substance by Darwin's theory of evolution through natural selection. On Purpose traces the profound and fascinating implications of these ways of thinking about purpose. Along the way, it takes up tough questions about the purpose of life and whether it's possible to have meaning without purpose, revealing that purpose is still a vital and pressing issue.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Acknowledgments

Prologue

CHAPTER 1. ATHENS

CHAPTER 2. JERUSALEM

CHAPTER 3. MACHINES

CHAPTER 4. EVOLUTION

CHAPTER 5. CHARLES DARWIN

CHAPTER 6. DARWINISM

CHAPTER 7. PLATO REDIVIVUS

CHAPTER 8. ARISTOTLE REDIVIVUS

CHAPTER 9. HUMAN EVOLUTION

CHAPTER 10. MIND

CHAPTER 11. RELIGION

CHAPTER 12. THE END

Epilogue

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Previously issued in print: 2017.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9781400888603

1400888603

OCLC:

1011253153