On Purpose
Michael Ruse
Abstract
Can we live without the idea of purpose? Should we even try to? Kant thought we were stuck with it, and even Darwin, who profoundly shook the idea, was unable to kill it. Indeed, purpose seems to be making a comeback today, as both religious advocates of intelligent design and some prominent secular philosophers argue that any explanation of life without the idea of purpose is missing something essential. This book explores the history of purpose in philosophical, religious, scientific, and historical thought, from ancient Greece to the present. The book traces how Platonic, Aristotelian, and ... More
Keywords: purpose, Platonic ideas, Aristotelian ideas, Kantian ideas, Western thought
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2019 | Print ISBN-13: 9780691195957 |
| Published to Princeton Scholarship Online: May 2020 | DOI:10.23943/princeton/9780691195957.001.0001 |
