On Purpose by Ruse Michael

Author:Ruse, Michael [Ruse, Michael]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780691172460
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Published: 2017-01-15T07:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER NINE

Human Evolution

TAKE UP AGAIN our trichotomy—Plato, Aristotle, Kant. In respects, since these are such long-standing traditions, one expects to find merits in all three. Why else would they have persisted? In respects, since the science has moved on so dramatically—I refer now to Darwinian evolution through selection—and since the traditions were established before this great move, one expects to find none taken alone entirely adequate. This is true on both counts. Start with Plato. I myself have trouble with the Christian God and indeed with all and any gods. But this is by the by. The point here is that the Platonic tradition certainly captures important aspects of the forward-looking nature of the world. The catch is that in today’s science—in today’s Darwinian science—any kind of nonmechanical understanding is ruled out. You might think that God stands behind things, but that has to remain your opinion. So long as your deity does not flagrantly conflict with science, or so long as you think you can reconcile your deity with science—I for one am with that former professor at Calvin College in simply not seeing how you can simultaneously believe in an original Adam and Eve, crucial for the Augustinian position on original sin, with the history to be presented in this chapter—you are entitled to that opinion. Unfortunately, it isn’t science, and you need to fill the gap now that God is no longer part of that picture.

Carry on with Aristotle. I have much sympathy for this position. If one means simply principles of ordering, then I am inclined to think that these properly supplement a Kantian position, explaining why it is that we can profitably think heuristically about ends and purposes. If it means anything more—as it clearly does to most of the people discussed in chapter 8, and as I am sure it does for Aristotle—then worries arise. If one makes Aristotle entirely secular—which he himself was not—then one runs afoul of this organic nature of reality. You have still got the job of explaining the principles. Is order for free really that plausible? Doesn’t all experience point to the truth of Murphy’s Law? If it can go wrong, it will go wrong. Without design or something equivalent, then nothing functions properly, and blind law without direction cannot do the job. Candidly, anyone who believes in ZFEL is probably ripe for Father Christmas. They think that lowering the taxes of the rich helps the poor. The world doesn’t work this way, folks—it really doesn’t. As Henry King discovered to his chagrin, string ties itself in knots. On its own, it doesn’t coil up nicely.

Which brings us to the third option, the Kantian approach. This fits with a mechanistic view of reality, while at the same time taking purpose, teleology, as fundamental and irreducible. You are not going to get rid of it, nor should you. The problem is, why does this work? We know the answer. Natural selection! This produces design-like effects and yet is entirely mechanistic. It shows why Murphy’s Law is not all-conquering.

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