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2 results

Evolution and the Fate of Humankind

Evolution and the Fate of Humankind
  • Peter A. Corning
  • Published online:
    15 February 2025
    Print publication:
    27 February 2025
    • Element
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  • In recent years we have come to understand better the forces that have shaped biological evolution over the course of time. Evolved purposiveness (teleonomy) in living systems themselves has been an important influence. Cooperative effects (synergies) of various kinds have also been influential. And the bioeconomics (functional costs and benefits) have been important constraints. Now we are facing a mounting survival crisis that may determine the future of life on Earth. We need to make a major course change, utilizing our insights into these important influences. Here is a review, and a 'prescription.'

  • 3 - Natural Selection, Teleology, and Chance in Evolution

  • Mariusz Tabaczek, Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas, Rome
  • Book:
    Theistic Evolution
    Published online:
    19 October 2023
    Print publication:
    02 November 2023, pp 92-126

  • Summary

    Chapter three engages in the investigation of the meaning and role of natural selection, teleology and chance in evolutionary processes. From Aristotle and Aquinas, through Darwin and the twentieth-century evolutionary synthesis, to the most current philosophy of evolutionary biology, the fate of the notion of goal-directedness is traced and it is defended as indispensable and intrinsically related to chance in processes that affect the fittingness of organisms, which is tested by natural selection.