“…read superficially, Darwin’s ideas can indeed tip into a vision of “mindless, purposeless algorithmic” selection—a view popularized by several late-twentieth-century biologists and philosophers (eg, Dennett, Dawkins). … Yet Darwin’s own texts, especially when read in the context of thinkers like Whitehead or Peirce, open onto the possibility that teleology is not an external imposition but a creative principle intrinsic to living organisms…”
—Matthew Segall, Hans Jonas' "The Phenomenon of Life”: A dialogue with Timothy Jackson about Jonas' treatment of Darwinism
#darwin #dennet #dawkins #whitehead #peirce