The Compatibility of Evolution and Classical Metaphysics

• Authors: Polis Dennis F.
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

The compatibility of evolution with Aristotelian-Thomistic metaphysics is defended in response to Fr. Michal Chaberek’s thesis of incompatibility. The motivation and structure of Darwin’s theory are reviewed, including the roles of secondary causality, randomness and necessity. “Randomness” is an analogous term whose evolutionary use, while challenging, is fully compatible with theism. Evolution’s necessity derives from the laws of nature, which are intentional realities, the vehicle of divine providence. Methodological analysis shows that metaphysics lacks the evidentiary basis to judge biological theories. Species are entia rationis whose immutability does not conflict with the evolutionary succession of biological populations. While Darwin’s theory was unknown to Aquinas, he endorses the possibility of new species immanent in the initial state of the universe, nor does his understanding of exemplar ideas offer ground for objection. Finally, five arguments given by Fr. Chaberek are answered.

Keywords

EN

Aristotelianism; Thomism; evolution; randomness; teleology; necessity; laws of nature; philosophy of science; species problem; intelligent design; problem of universals; abstraction; exemplar ideas; theism

• Publisher: International Étienne Gilson Society
• Journal: Studia Gilsoniana
• Year: 2020
• Volume: 9
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 549-585

Dates

published

2020-12-30

Contributors

author

Polis Dennis F.

References

• Amitani, Yuichi. “The Persistence Question of the Species Problem.” PhD diss., The University of British Columbia, 2010. Available online at: https://open.library.ubc.ca/cIRcle/collections/ubctheses/24/items/1.0071552. Accessed July 30, 2020.
• Aquinas, Thomas. De Entia and Essentia [On Being and Essence]. Translated by Gyula Klima. In Medieval Philosophy: Essential Readings with Commentary, edited by Gyula Klima, Fritz Allhoff and Anand Jayprakash, 227–249. Malden, Mass.: Blackwell Publishing, 2007.
• Aquinas, Thomas. Summa Theologiae. 5 Volumes. Translated by Fathers of the English Dominican Province. Westminster, Md.: Christian Classics, 1981.
• Aquinas, Thomas. The Division and Methods of the Sciences: Questions V and VI of His Commentary on the De Trinitate of Boethius. Translated by Armand Maurer. 4th Revised Edition. Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1986.
• Aristotle. Categories and de Interpretatione. Translated by J. L. Ackrill. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1963.
• Aristotle. Metaphysics. 2 Volumes. Translated by W. D. Ross. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1924.
• Aristotle. On the Parts of Animals. Translated by A. L. Peck. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1961.
• Aristotle. Physics. Translated by Richard Hope. Lincoln, Nebr.: University of Nebraska Press, 1961.
• Aristotle. The Nicomachean Ethics: Translated with an Introduction. Translated by David Ross. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1925.
• Baer, Charles F. “Mutation.” In The Princeton Guide to Evolution, edited by Jonathan B. Losos et al., 315–320. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2014.
• Barr, Avron, and Edward A. Feigenbaum. Handbook of Artificial Intelligence. Vol. 1. Los Altos, Calif.: William Kaufman, Inc., 1981.
• Behe, Michael J. Darwin’s Black Box: The Biochemical Challenge to Evolution. 10th Anniversary Edition. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2001.
• Broadbent, D. A. “The Magical Number Seven after Fifteen Years.” In Studies in Long-Term Memory, edited by Alan Kennedy and Alan Wilkes, 3–18. New York: Wiley, 1975.
• Chaberek, Michal. “Classical Metaphysics and Theistic Evolution: Why Are They Incompatible?” Studia Gilsoniana 8, no. 1 (January–March 2019): 47–81. DOI: 10.26385/SG.080102.
• Clark, Ronald W. The Survival of Charles Darwin: A Biography of a Man and an Idea. London: Widenfeld and Nicolson, 1984.
• Darwin, Charles. The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life. London: John Murray, 1859.
• Dirac, Paul A. M. Quantum Mechanics. 4th Edition. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1958.
• Gould, Stephen J. The Structure of Evolutionary Theory. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2002.
• Hannam, James. The Genesis of Science: How the Christian Middle Ages Launched the Scientific Revolution. Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, Inc., 2011.
• Hasse, Dag Nikolaus. “Influence of Arabic and Islamic Philosophy on the Latin West.” The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, edited by Edward N. Zalta. Spring 2020 Edition. Available online at: https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2020/entries/arabic-islamic-influence/. Accessed July 30, 2020.
• Kanne, Marvin E. “Saint Thomas Aquinas’ Division of the Sciences.” Transactions of the Nebraska Academy of Sciences VII (1979): 145–148.
• Lindsay, Robert Bruce, and Henry Margenau. Foundations of Physics. New York: Wiley, 1936.
• Maritain, Jacques. Distinguish to Unite or the Degrees of Knowledge. Notre Dame, Ind.: University of Notre Dame Press, 1995.
• Maurer, Armand. “Darwin, Thomists, and Secondary Causality.” The Review of Metaphysics 57, no. 3 (March 2004): 491–514. Available online at: https://apologetyka.com/ptkr/groups/ptkrmember/spor/2004/maurer%20darwin-aquinas.pdf. Accessed July 30, 2020.
• Maurer, Armand. Thomas Aquinas: The Division and Method of the Sciences. 4th Revised Edition. Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies, 1986.
• Mayr, Ernst. Systematics and the Origin of Species from the Viewpoint of a Zoologist. New York: Columbia University Press, 1942.
• Mayr, Ernst. The Growth of Biological Thought: Diversity, Evolution, and Inheritance. Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University, 1982.
• Mora, Camilo, et al. “How Many Species Are There on Earth and in the Ocean?” PLoS Biology 9, no. 8 (August 2011): e1001127. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.1001127.
• Polis, Dennis F. “Evolution: Mind or Randomness?” Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies XXII, no. 1/2 (2010): 32–66. Available online at: https://archive.vn/sAvOI. Accessed July 30, 2020.
• Preus, Anthony. “Eidos as a Norm in Aristotle’s Biology.” In Essays in Ancient Greek Philosophy, vol. II, edited by John P. Anton and Anthony Preus, 340–363. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1983. Also available online at: https://orb.binghamton.edu/sagp/86. Accessed July 30, 2020.
• Sober, Elliot. Evidence and Evolution: The Logic Behind The Science. Cambridge University Press, 2008.
• Tanzella-Nitti, Giuseppe. “The Two Books Prior to the Scientific Revolution.” Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith 57, no. 3 (September 2005): 235–248. Available online at: https://www.asa3.org/ASA/PSCF/2005/PSCF9-05Tanzella-Nitti.pdf. Accessed July 30, 2020.
• The Autobiography of Charles Darwin, edited by Nora Barlow. New York: Norton, 1958.
• The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 8, edited by Charles Burkhardt et al. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1993.
• Theobald, Douglas L. “A Formal Test of the Theory of Universal Common Ancestry.” Nature 465 (May 13, 2010): 219–222. DOI: 10.1038/nature09014.
• Van Wyhe, John, and Mark J. Pallen. “The ‘Annie Hypothesis’: Did the Death of His Daughter Cause Darwin to ‘Give Up Christianity’?” Centaurus 54, no. 2 (2012): 105–123.
• Waggoner, Ben. “Robert Hooke (1635–1703).” Available online at: https://ucmp.berkeley.edu/history/hooke.html. Last modified January 20, 2001. Accessed July 30, 2020.
• Wallace, Alfred Russel. World of Life: A Manifestation of Creative Power, Directive Mind, and Ultimate Purpose. New York: Moffat, Yard, and Co., 1911.
• Whitehead, Alfred North. Science and the Modern World. New York: Macmillan Co., 1925.
• Wilkins, John S. “Philosophically Speaking, How Many Species Concepts are There?” Zootaxa 2765, no. 1 (2011): 58–60. DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.2765.1.5.

Identifiers

ISSN

2300-0066

ISSN

2577-0314

DOI

10.26385/SG.090424