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Chapter 16 - Aristotelian Teleology and Philosophy of Biology in the Darwinian Era

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 May 2021

Sophia M. Connell
Affiliation:
Birkbeck College, University of London
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Summary

This chapter compares Aristotle’s theory of generation and Darwinian evolution by natural selection. It begins by explicating Aristotle’s distinction between intrinsic (kat’auta) and incidental (kata sumbêbêkos) final causation. Aristotle uses this distinction to differentiate Empedocles’ account of generation as incidentally final from his own intrinsically final view. Like Empedocles, Aristotle accepts spontaneous generation, but only as an exception to formal, sexual reproduction. In consequence, he describes spontaneous generation differently from Empedocles.

The chapter goes on to argue that by these standards Darwinian natural selection is intrinsically final and biologically (but not cosmologically) teleological. Accordingly, it is not nearly as similar to Empedocles’ primitive theory of “natural selection” as is sometimes assumed. That this difference was not apparent to Darwin’s contemporaries, or even to Darwin himself, is attributed to Darwinism’s subtle mixture of chance, determinism, and biological teleology. At first, the effects of medieval creationism on Aristotle’s hylomorphism and deterministic views about science were prominent factors standing in the way of understanding the logic of adaptive natural selection. Mid-twentieth-century Neo-Darwinism made the telic logic of Darwinian adaptation more perspicuous. Recent developments in regulatory genetics promise to give evolutionary meaning to something akin to Aristotle’s epigenetic account of generation.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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References

Guide to Further Reading

Sauvé Meyer, S. 1992. “Aristotle, Teleology and Reduction,” Philosophical Review 101: 791825.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leroi, A. M. 2014. The Lagoon. How Aristotle Invented Science (London: Bloomsbury).Google Scholar
Falcon, A. 2005. Aristotle and the Science of Nature: Unity Without Uniformity (Cambridge University Press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lennox, J. 2001b. Aristotle’s Philosophy of Biology (Cambridge University Press).Google Scholar
Falcon, A. and Lefebvre, D. 2018. Aristotle’s Generation of Animals: A Critical Guide (Cambridge University Press).Google Scholar
Henry, D. 2006b. “Aristotle on the Mechanisms of Inheritance,” Journal of the History of Biology 39: 425455.Google Scholar
Connell, S. 2016. Aristotle on Female Animals: A Study of the Generation of Animals (Cambridge University Press).Google Scholar
Lennox, J. 2001b. Aristotle’s Philosophy of Biology: Studies in the Origins of Life Science (Cambridge University Press).Google Scholar
Gotthelf, A. 1999. “Darwin on Aristotle,” Journal of the History of Biology 32: 330.Google Scholar
Lennox, J. 1994a. “Darwin Was a Teleologist,” Biology and Philosophy 8: 409421.Google Scholar
Ayala, F. 1970. “Teleological Explanations in Biology,” Philosophy of Science 37: 115.Google Scholar
Brandon, R. 1981. “Biological Teleology: Questions and Explanations,” Studies in the History and Philosophy of Science 12: 91105.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Depew, D., 2008. “Consequence Etiology and Biological Teleology in Aristotle and Darwin,” Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences 38: 379390.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Balme, D. 1987d. “Aristotle’s Biology Was Not Essentialist,” in Gotthelf, A. and Lennox, J. G. (eds.) Philosophical Issues in Aristotle’s Biology (Cambridge University Press), 291312.Google Scholar
Depew, D. 2016. “Contingency, Chance, and Randomness in Ancient and Modern Biology,” in Ramsey, G. and Pence, C. (eds.), Chance in Evolution (University of Chicago Press), 115140.Google Scholar

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