Overview

"By asking how well theological views of human nature stand up to the discoveries of modern science, Alan Olding re-opens the question of whether the ""design"" argument for the existence of God is fatally undermined. A distinctive feature of the work is its emphasis on the metaphysical implications of biology and how these at times conflict with other, more plausible metaphysical positions. Another is its close critical examination of the ""design"" argument and of the relation God has to the world he creates. ""Modern Biology and Natural Theology"" takes up issues currently of concern to many thinkers and will provide fascinating reading for anyone interested in philosophical problems, particularly the impact of Darwinism on natural theology."

Full Product Details

Author:   Alan Olding
Publisher:   Taylor & Francis Ltd
Imprint:   Routledge
Weight:   0.453kg
ISBN:  

9780415049719

ISBN 10:   0415049717
Pages:   204
Publication Date:   29 November 1990
Audience:   College/higher education ,  General/trade ,  Tertiary & Higher Education ,  General
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
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Table of Contents

Introduction; Part 01 Part I Biology; Section 01 1 The decline of purposive explanations; Section 01-01-01 Purpose in physics and biology; Section 01-01-02 Paley and Darwin; Section 01-01-03 Biological functions; Section 01-01-04 Functions and accidents; Section 01-01-05 The teleological imagination; Section 01-01-06 Beyond tautology; Section 01-01-07 The quest for the wholly real; Section 02 2 Biology and metaphysics; Section 02-01-01 Presuppositions; Section 02-01-02 Drawing teeth and blunting claws; Section 02-01-03 For reality; Section 03 3 The stuff we are made of; Section 03-01-01 Behind appearances; Section 03-01-02 Atoms and their qualities; Section 03-01-03 Levels of discourse and levels of reality; Section 03-01-04 Ontological levels; Section 03-01-05 Polanyi’s notion of levels; Section 03-01-06 The contradiction in the notion of levels; Section 03-01-07 Tensions; Part 02 Part II Problems; Section 04 4 Reductionism or Darwinism; Section 04-01-01 Ungrateful offspring; Section 04-01-02 Trouble in mind; Section 05 5 Biology and knowledge; Section 05-01-01 Perception and survival; Section 05-01-02 Darwinism and scepticism; Section 06 6 Consciousness and its objects; Section 06-01-01 Metaphysics again; Section 06-01-02 The argument developed; Section 06-01-03 The sensitive mind; Section 06-01-04 Perception as belief; Section 06-01-05 The perceiving self; Part 03 Part III Natural theology; Section 07 7 Biology and cosmology; Section 07-01-01 ‘The fitness of the environment’; Section 07-01-02 Anthropic answers; Section 07-01-03 The joker in the pack; Section 08 8 From world to God; Section 08-01-01 Design; Section 08-01-02 An embodied god?; Section 08-01-03 Equivocation as analogy; Section 08-01-04 God willing; Section 09 9 And back again; Section 09-01-01 The world willed; Section 09-01-02 Much ado out of nothing; Section 09-01-03 Science and theism; Section 09-01-04 The empirical content of theism; Section 09-01-05 Deism and the notion of ‘the world’; Section 09-01-06 The agony of the world; Notes; Bibliography; Index;

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