Tag: emergence

^{Type
post

Author
Stephen J. Iacoboni

Date
June 30, 2026

Categories
Evolution
Intelligent Design
Tagged
, "God of the gaps", agency, Aristotle, biologists, Charles Darwin, chemistry, complexity, emergence, Erwin Schrödinger, evolution, flowers, function, G. H. Lewes, ime's Second Arrow, improbability, intelligent design, Jack Szostak, Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, language, Life Itself, machines, materialists, mechanism, metaphysics, Michael Behe, Michael Polanyi, Michael Wong, natural selection, naturalism, organisms, physics, probability, purpose, RNA, Robert Hazen, Robert Rosen, science of purpose, Second Law of Thermodynamics, specified irreducible complexity, telos, Thomas Jefferson, Time's Second Arrow}

Misinterpreting Teleology: Another Attempt to Salvage Materialism

_{Stephen J. Iacoboni
June 30, 2026

Evolution, Intelligent Design

8}

It’s a “self-evident truth,” as Thomas Jefferson, an early ID proponent himself, might have put it: organisms necessarily exist by virtue of purpose. Read More ›

Woman with straitjacket, dark background

^{Type
post

Date
June 5, 2026

Categories
Philosophy of Science
Scientific Reasoning
Tagged
, Adam Frank, astrophysicists, biologists, consciousness, dualism, emergence, Güneş Taylor, Institute for Arts and Ideas, Lisa Feldman Barrett, materialism, Michael Levin, neuroscientists, perspectival view, physicists, religion, spacetime, Stephen Hawking, straightjacket, superstition, third-person view, universe, University of Rochester, Werner Heisenberg, YouTube channels}

Scientists Ask, “Is Materialism Holding Science Back?”

_{Science & Culture
June 5, 2026

Philosophy of Science, Scientific Reasoning

3}

Is materialism a straightjacket? The very fact that a respectable conversation is going on around this question tells us that something has changed. Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Stephen J. Iacoboni

Date
December 9, 2025

Categories
Evolution
Intelligent Design
Tagged
, biology, complementarity, consciousness, David Klinghoffer, dispositionalism, Edward Feser, emergence, Etienne Gilson, final causality, Günter Bechly, Lex Fridman, mathematics, metaphysics, Michael Levin, MIT Press, naturalism, necessity, ontology, origin of life, Peter Corning, Plato's Revenge, purpose, Richard Sternberg, science of purpose, specified irreducible complexity, teleology, teleonomy, telos, Thomism, Tufts University}

Science, Purpose, and Michael Levin: The Discussion Evolves

_{Stephen J. Iacoboni
December 9, 2025

Evolution, Intelligent Design

6}

A leading spiritually agnostic (at least, that is my impression) biology researcher, Michael Levin at Tufts, is himself a proponent of teleology in nature. Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Stephen J. Iacoboni

Date
December 4, 2025

Categories
Biology
Intelligent Design
Tagged
, Antarctica, Arctic, Aristotle, bacterial flagellum, bats, biology, biosphere, blood-clotting cascade, blubber, cetaceans, Chance and Necessity, CHNOPS, complementarity, Darwin's Black Box, duality, emergence, Erwin Schrödinger, feathers, function, Jaques Monod, language, marine iguanas, Mass, Michael Behe, penguins, physical reality, property, science of purpose, scientism, specified irreducible complexity, structure, structure-function relationship, telos, Thomas Aquinas, Thomistic Aristotelianism}

How Life Becomes Comprehensible: A New Scientific Framework

_{Stephen J. Iacoboni
December 4, 2025

Biology, Intelligent Design

7}

The duality of emergence and specified irreducible complexity must be discarded. In doing so, we create a framework compatible with Thomistic Aristotelianism. Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Kirk Durston

Date
November 25, 2025

Categories
Life Sciences
Neuroscience & Mind
Physics
Tagged
, aneurysm, axioms, beliefs, blood, body, brain, brain hemispheres, C.S. Lewis, decision, emergence, falsification, free will, heart, illusion, immaterial mind, laws, laws of nature, libertarian free will, mathematics, Michael Egnor, mind, neurosurgery, physics, Sabine Hossenfelder, scientific method, scientists, surgery, thinking}

A Close Look at Free Will: What Should Our Default Position Be?

_{Kirk Durston
November 25, 2025

Life Sciences, Neuroscience & Mind, Physics

23}

The hypothesis that we have an immaterial mind capable of making free, meaningful decisions, continues to be verified. Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Stephen J. Iacoboni

Date
November 17, 2025

Categories
Engineering
Intelligent Design
Tagged
, Aristotelianism, Aristotle, artifacts, artwork, axes, biology, causality, chairs, DNA, E.O. Wilson, emergence, enzymes, evolution, Evolution “On Purpose”, final causality, Francis Bacon, Immanuel Kant, intelligent design, Irreducible Complexity, Isaac Newton, Jacques Monod, Judeo-Christian tradition, Leonard Susskind, Life Itself, Ludwig Wittgenstein, machines, mechanics, Michael Behe, Neo-Darwinism, purpose, René Descartes, Robert Rosen, rockets, science of purpose, St. Thomas Aquinas, Stephen Hawking, structure-function relationship, telos, Theodosius Dobzhansky, tools, William Dembski, windmills}

What Is the Originating Source of Design in Organisms?

_{Stephen J. Iacoboni
November 17, 2025

Engineering, Intelligent Design

9}

The genesis of structure-function relationships in human artifacts is as well understood as are their mechanics. Read More ›

Happy businessman, walking and city to work for travel on street or pedestrian crossing outdoors. Black man on cross road, walk or traveling to business with suit and smile on asphalt in urban town

^{Type
post

Author
David Klinghoffer

Date
November 6, 2025

Categories
Engineering
Intelligent Design
Tagged
, athletes, awareness, body parts, cars, consciousness, cornea, emergence, engineering, eyeglasses, hearing, Howard Glicksman, intelligent design, lens, prescription, proprioception, purpose, Secrets of the Human Body, Steve Laufmann, vision, walking, Your Amazing Body}

Living in 3-D: Not a Big Deal? New Video Explains Why It’s a VERY Big Deal

_{David Klinghoffer
November 6, 2025

Engineering, Intelligent Design

3}

Living in three dimensions is crucial not only for athletes, who excel at exploiting the body’s abilities, but for any one of us walking down the street. Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Stephen J. Iacoboni

Date
October 29, 2025

Categories
Evolution
Intelligent Design
Tagged
, abstraction, airfoil, Albert Einstein, anatomy, antennae, Aristotle, biology, duality, emergence, engineering, Erwin Schrödinger, evolution, function, intelligent design, Isaac Newton, mathematicians, Michael Behe, molecular biology, physics, physiology, Pierre-Simon Laplace, propellers, René Descartes, Return of the God Hypothesis, rockets, science of purpose, scientism, specified irreducible complexity, Stephen Meyer, structure, structure-function relationship, Werner Heisenberg, What Is Life?}

Emergence and Irreducible Complexity: A Unified Theory

_{Stephen J. Iacoboni
October 29, 2025

Evolution, Intelligent Design

7}

We are all familiar with the duality — structure and function — from both technology and biology. Read More ›

woman vaccinated and with a band-aid on her arm, giving a sign that all is well.

^{Type
post

Author
Denyse O’Leary

Date
October 25, 2025

Categories
Epistemology
Evolution
Tagged
, causation, complexity, cosmos, emergence, ignorance, materialistic philosophy, philosophers, promissory materialism, scientists, Washington University}

Materialism’s Band-Aid, “Emergence” Is Bad Science

_{Denyse O’Leary
October 25, 2025

Epistemology, Evolution

3}

The idea is that some properties of systems emerge only after a certain level of complexity is reached. Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Daniel Witt

Date
February 28, 2025

Categories
Biology
Engineering
Mathematics
Metaphysics
Tagged
, a priori, abstract objects, Andreas Wagner, Daniel Dennett, David Deutsch, Discovery Institute, DNA, emergence, flatworms, frogs, Günter Bechly, Harvard University, material world, materialism, Max Tegmark, Mereology, Michael Levin, morphogenesis, mysticism, naturalism, philosophy of biology, physical world, physicalism, Platonism, Platonists, Richard Sternberg, Roger Penrose, secondary qualities, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, teleology, Tufts University, universals, University of Zurich, Werner Heisenberg}

Biologist Michael Levin: A Farewell to Physicalism

_{Daniel Witt
February 28, 2025

Biology, Engineering, Mathematics, Metaphysics

15}

Levin proposes a “radical Platonist view in which some of the causal input into mind and life originates outside the physical world.” Read More ›