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telos

2560px-FoxandtwoharesLCCN2009630317
Image: Fox and hares, Japanese fine prints, pre-1915, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

From Materialist Biologists, a Profound Capitulation

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 ›
GrizzlyBearinAlaska
Photo credit: Ashley Lee, CC BY 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons.

Teleology: Anticipation and Necessity

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 ›
Pez_ballesta_picasso_arábigo_(Rhinecanthus_assasi),_mar_Rojo,_Egipto,_2023-04-18,_DD_22
Photo credit: Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons.

Life Itself: In Michael Levin’s Platonism, Teleology Advances

This is a huge step by a leading contemporary academic scientist away from pure physicalism. Read More ›
American_mastodon_with_calf
Photo: American mastodons, by Jeremy Thompson, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons.

The Metaphysics of Irreducible Complexity

The vastness of life’s complexity is no longer unfathomable when seen through the light of purpose. Read More ›
aurora
Photo credit: Image Credit: NASA/Matthew Dominick.

Spencer Klavan Asks: What Is the Universe Made Of?

In ancient and medieval times, the world “seemed alive with spirit and divine fire.” That humans should be invested with spirit and soul was only natural. Read More ›
Born_and_bred..._(32403043600)
Photo: A briar patch, by Phil Gayton from Totnes, UK, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons.

My Briar Patch: Notes of a Country Doctor 

It took me about twenty years after medical school to break free of the intellectual "comfort" afforded by the mechanistic consensus. Read More ›
Trees_in_ICM_on_Myrstigen_hiking_trail,_Brastad_2
Photo credit: W. Carter, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons.

Discerning the Shape of a “New Biology”

Purpose and intentionality permeate and in fact define the living state, in contrast to the inanimate. Read More ›
HMS Beagle
Image: HMS Beagle, by Conrad Martens, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

Darwin’s Science and Storytelling

His five-year voyage was undoubtedly an eye-opening rite of passage but perhaps not as foundational to his intellectual development as is sometimes proposed. Read More ›
Apollo 17
Photo credit: Apollo 17/NASA.

“All Things Are Ordered to Their End” 

In that one simple phrase, St. Thomas Aquinas, the greatest Christian theologian of all time, echoed the fundamental teaching of Aristotle. Read More ›
chicken embryo
embryonic development
Photo: Chicken embryo, by Ben Skála (Own work) [GFDL or CC BY 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons.

Life Without Purpose — The Fundamental Flaw

The fundamental flaw in the conventional approach to understanding life is that we think we can fully understand the whole by looking at the individual parts. Read More ›

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