Purpose and desire : what makes something "alive" and why modern Darwinism has failed to explain it Cover Image

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

Turner, J. Scott, 1951- (Author).

Summary:

"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 flap.

Record details

ISBN: 9780062651563
ISBN: 0062651560
Physical Description: xvi, 332 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm
Publisher: New York : HarperOne, 2017.
Copyright: ©2017

Content descriptions

General Note:	Publisher, publishing date and paging may vary.
Bibliography, etc. Note:	Includes bibliographical references (pages 303-320) and index.
Formatted Contents Note:	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.