From Aristotle to Darwin and Back Again A Journey in Final Causality, Species, and Evolution

by Gilson, Etienne

• ISBN13: 9781586171698
• ISBN10: 1586171690
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-09-01
• Publisher: Ignatius Press

Summary

Darwin's theory of evolution remains controversial, even though most scientists, philosophers, and even theologians accept it, in some form. The controversy erupts when the theory is used to try to explain everything and to deny the role of a Creator or a purpose to life. It is then that philosophers and theologians cry, Foul!.

Author Biography

tienne Gilson (1884-1978) was a renowned French philosopher and historian of philosophy, and a member of the prestigious French Academy. He was a prominent leader in the twentieth-century resurgence of the philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas. Among his books are The Unity of Philosophical Experience, The Spirit of Medieval Philosophy, and The History of Christian Philosophy in the Middle Ages.

Table of Contents

Foreword	p. ix
Preface	p. 1
Aristotelian Prologue	p. 3
The Mechanist Objection	p. 21
Finality and Evolution	p. 38
Fixism	p. 38
Transformism	p. 49
Lamarck	p. 49
Darwin without Evolution	p. 58
Evolution without Darwin	p. 72
Darwin and Malthus	p. 88
Evolution and Teleology	p. 95
Bergsonism and Teleology	p. 107
The Limits of Mechanism	p. 125
The Constants of Biophilosophy	p. 142
Linnaeus: Observations on the Three Kingdoms of Nature	p. 161
Darwin in Search of Species	p. 165
Notes	p. 187
Index	p. 233
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