Tag: final cause

^{Type
post

Author
Stephen J. Iacoboni

Date
June 20, 2025

Categories
Faith & Science
Intelligent Design
Philosophy of Science
Tagged
, "survival of the fittest", biology, cells, Chance & Necessity, CRISPRs, Daniel Witt, Evolution on Purpose, final cause, foxes, hares, integrons, intelligent design, internal regulatory control networks, James Shapiro, Jaques Monod, life, materialism, materialist paradigm, miracles, Modern Synthesis, molecules, mutations, neo-Darwinian evolution, organisms, organs, Peter Corning, purpose, retroposons, science of purpose, teleology, teleonomy, telos, Thomism, transposons}

From Materialist Biologists, a Profound Capitulation

_{Stephen J. Iacoboni
June 20, 2025

Faith & Science, Intelligent Design, Philosophy of Science

8}

I have warned that one of the few remaining avenues that naturalism can take to rescue its paradigm is to appropriate “purpose” within a materialist framework. Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Stephen J. Iacoboni

Date
May 31, 2025

Categories
Evolution
Faith & Science
Intelligent Design
Metaphysics
Tagged
, anticipation, August Weismann, Bible, biosphere, building blocks, causation, Chance and Necessity, chipmunks, cognition, Design Inference, DNA, electromagnetism, Ferrari, final cause, flowering plants, Ford Mustang, Francis Crick, grizzly bear, immanent power, intelligent design, Isaac Newton, James Hutchison Stirling, Jaques Monod, natural selection, natural theology, necessity, nectar, perch, pollinators, purpose, representational directedness, rodent, science of purpose, telos, Thomas Aquinas, Thomism, tuna, William A. Dembski, wolf}

Teleology: Anticipation and Necessity

_{Stephen J. Iacoboni
May 31, 2025

Evolution, Faith & Science, Intelligent Design, Metaphysics

10}

Imagine a primordial grizzly bear on the northern edge of the forest adjacent to the Arctic. His soma senses the differences of the new environment. Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Richard Weikart

Date
December 16, 2024

Categories
Evolution
Intelligent Design
Tagged
, adaptations, Alphonse de Candolle, Asa Gray, biologists, butterflies, Cambridge University Press, Darwin Mythology, final cause, Friedrich Engels, Harvard University, historians, James G. Lennox, Karl Marx, mimicry, purpose, teleology, William Graham}

Did Darwin Banish Teleology from Nature or Not?

_{Richard Weikart
December 16, 2024

Evolution, Intelligent Design

5}

James G. Lennox quotes from an 1862 essay, where Darwin wrote that “the final cause of all this mimicry” among butterflies is evading predation. Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Daniel Witt

Date
September 9, 2024

Categories
Evolution
Intelligent Design
Metaphysics
Tagged
, algorithms, amino acids, Aristotle, causation, chickens, evolution, Evolution “On Purpose”, evolutionary theorists, explanations, final cause, G.K. Chesterton, human body, intelligent design, laws of physics, life, materialism, Mereology, Mona Lisa, oncologists, purpose, purposefulness, quantum physics, science of purpose, screwdriver, Stephen J. Iacoboni, Stuart Kauffman, supernatural, Thomas Aquinas, universe}

Theist Doctor, Materialist Doctor

_{Daniel Witt
September 9, 2024

Evolution, Intelligent Design, Metaphysics

16}

To be a good medical doctor, you have to treat the human body as if its parts have purpose and function. There’s really no way around it. Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Stephen J. Iacoboni

Date
August 12, 2024

Categories
Biology
Intelligent Design
Life Sciences
Tagged
, Aristotle, Bertrand Russell, Carl Woese, causation, cells, Chance and Necessity, David Hume, dispositionalism, Evolution News, final cause, intentionality, Isaac Newton, Jacques Monod, Michael Behe, organelle, powers ontology, purpose, René Descartes, science of purpose, telos, The Design Inference, Walter Elsasser, William A. Dembski}

Discerning the Shape of a “New Biology”

_{Stephen J. Iacoboni
August 12, 2024

Biology, Intelligent Design, Life Sciences

5}

Purpose and intentionality permeate and in fact define the living state, in contrast to the inanimate. Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Michael Egnor

Date
March 6, 2023

Categories
Biology
Neuroscience & Mind
Philosophy
Physical Sciences
Physics
Tagged
, amino acids, analgesic, Aristotle, arthritis, body, causation, chirality, documentary, efficient cause, final cause, formal cause, Francis Bacon, free will, individuation, Johns Hopkins University, libertarian free will, material cause, matter, mind, neuroscience, quantum mechanics, sculptor, sculpture, Sean Carroll, statue, trailer}

Sean Carroll: “How Could an Immaterial Mind Affect the Body?”

_{Michael Egnor
March 6, 2023

Biology, Neuroscience & Mind, Philosophy, Physical Sciences, Physics

6}

Aristotle noted that when we think carefully about natural causes we see that there are four distinct ways that causes can lead to effects in nature. Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Michael Egnor

Date
October 22, 2019

Categories
Faith & Science
Metaphysics
Tagged
, __edited, accident, acorn, Aristotle, atheism, causation, cellular metabolism, chance, complexity, Darwinism, deism, efficient cause, evolution, Fifth Way, final cause, Five Ways, formal cause, intelligent design, material cause, natural science, nature, oak tree, order, patterns, purpose, specification, teleology, Thomas Aquinas, watchmaker}

Aquinas’ Fifth Way: The Proof from Specification

_{Michael Egnor
October 22, 2019

Faith & Science, Metaphysics

10}

What’s remarkable in nature is not so much that nature follows complex patterns, but that it follows any pattern at all. Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Michael Egnor

Date
August 7, 2017

Categories
Philosophy
Physical Sciences
Tagged
, __k-review, Aristotle, causality, disorder, entropy, final cause, Joseph Carter, nature, New York Times, order, purpose, teleology, University of Georgia}

Does Nature Show Purpose? Reply to a Materialist Philosopher

_{Michael Egnor
August 7, 2017

Philosophy, Physical Sciences

4}

Aristotelian teleology is, as Joseph Carter points out, manifested by order in nature. More precisely, teleology is consistency: natural processes tend to consistent ends. Read More ›