Gilson, Darwin, and Intelligent Design

• Authors: Desmond J. FitzGerald
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

The article starts with stating the fact that today there is an increasing recognition of difficulties with Darwinism accompanied by vigorous responses on the part of Darwin’s defenders; among the instances of challenge to the dominant theory, one can find a book of Gilson, From Aristotle to Darwin and Back Again, and those behind the Intelligent Design movement. In relating the book of Gilson to the ID proponents, the author concludes that, while in some ways they are on the same side in opposing the anti-creation thrust of Darwinism, Gilson is neutral on the validity or truth of Darwin’s biological hypothesis. Gilson, however, whose book preceded the ID movement by some twenty years, seeks to analyze Darwinism from the perspective of the classical philosophy of nature. He well understands that, according to modern scientific method, final causes are excluded from consideration, but he calls for a biophilosophy which will be open to the reality of human experience as Aristotle was and recognize that teleology is present in nature. According to him, even if teleology seems to be a contestable explanation, chance as understood by Darwinists is the pure absence of explanation.

Keywords

EN

Gilson; Aristotle; Spencer; Darwin; Darwinism; evolution; intelligent design; teleology

• Publisher: International Étienne Gilson Society
• Journal: Studia Gilsoniana
• Year: 2015
• Volume: 4
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 349-361

Dates

published

2015-12-30

Contributors

author

Desmond J. FitzGerald

• University of San Francisco, California, USA

Identifiers

ISSN

2300-0066