Portland Public Library

Purpose & desire, what makes something "alive" and why modern Darwinism has failed to explain it, J. Scott Turner

eng

Includes bibliographical references (pages 303-318) and index

illustrations

index present

non fiction

Purpose & desire

bibliography

967067571

J. Scott Turner

what makes something "alive" and why modern Darwinism has failed to explain it

"SUNY professor, biologist, and physiologist J. Scott Turner argues that modern Darwinism's materialist and mechanistic biases have led to a scientific dead end, unable to define what life is--and only an openness to the qualities of "purpose and desire" will move the field forward. Turner surveys the history of evolutionary thought, identifying "purpose and desire" as the keys to a coherent science of life and its evolution. In Purpose and Desire, Turner draws on the work of Claude Bernard, a contemporary of Darwin revered as the founder of experimental physiology. Turner builds on Bernard's "dangerous idea" of homeostasis, a radical proposition for what makes "life" a unique phenomenon in nature. To fully understand life, including its evolution, Turner argues that we must move beyond strictly enforced boundaries of mechanism and materialism to explore living nature as distinctly purposeful and driven by desire."--Jacket

The pony under the tree -- Biology's second law -- Many little lives -- A clockwork homeostasis -- A mad dream -- The barrier that wasn't -- The reverse Pinocchio -- A multiplicity of memory -- One is the friendliest number -- The hand of whatever -- Plato Street -- Epilogue : Evolution, purpose, and desire

Purpose and desire