Efficient Causation vs. Teleology

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Efficient Causation vs. Teleology
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Herbert Spencer

• Introduced the phrase survival of the fittest
  in his Principles of Biology (1864)
• Wrote This survival of the fittest . . . is
  that which Mr. Darwin has called 'natural
  selection', or the preservation of favoured races
  in the struggle for life.
• Spencer used this phrase to reinforce his social
  theories, which came to be called by the name
  Social Darwinism

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Darwins Theory of Natural Selection

• Darwin's theory of natural selection implies no
  concept of progress
• According to the classical view of science,
  evolution is not a directional process
• So why do we tend so much to see evolution in
  evaluative terms?

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Aristotle's 4 Types of "Causes"
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Teleology

• The Greek word telos meaning end or completion,
  is behind the philosophical term, teleology,
  meaning the study of the purpose of things
• Teleology has been discredited by modern
  scientists

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Efficient Cause

• According to the classical view of science, the
  only real cause at work in the universe is the
  interactions of atoms according to the strict
  natural laws of physics
• Physical events are the real causes behind every
  effect
• All causation is really bottom-up (from the
  atoms)

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Conflict Religious Critics of Darwinism

• Behe argues for Intelligent Design (not for
  "young earth creationism")
• Organisms are like "mousetraps", irreducibly
  complex interlocking systems that don't work if
  you remove any key parts (Eg. flagella of simple
  bacteria are composed of dozens of different
  proteins)
• Based on William Paley's teleological argument
  (1803), which uses the analogy A watchmaker is
  to watch as God is to universe
• Avoid using the G-word

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Conflict Naturalist Critics of Religion

• Dawkins asks why would the eye be designed so
  inefficiently if it was the product of
  intelligent design?
• Answer Because evolution is a process that
  always must create "ad-hoc" solutions from
  existing natural structures

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Independence

• S.J. Gould NOMA (Non-Overlapping Magesteria)
• A magesterium is a domain of teaching authority
• Religion deals with ethical and metaphysical
  claims
• Science deals only with empirical claims

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Dialogue

• Religious critics ask whether it is true that
  nature can be explained fully by efficient
  causation alone
• What about instances of apparent top-down
  causation (influence of a system on many
  sub-systems)?
• "internal drives of organisms can initiate
  evolutionary changes (Baldwin Effect) such as
• soldier termites
• Whales

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Integration

• Modern biology, like quantum physics, rejects
  strict determinism
• Too many blind alleys in evolution to support a
  deterministic view of God
• But role of chance in evolution leaves some room
  for possible action of God at a higher level as
  the ultimate top-down cause and as the designer
  of the boundary conditions of the
  self-organizing system of nature