Vendor
	Foundry Claire Harris
Original language
English
Categories
Society & Social Sciences

PURPOSE AND DESIRE

Scott Turner

What Makes Something "Alive" and Why Modern Darwinism Has Failed to Explain It

A thoughtful appeal to widen our perspective of biology that is grounded in scientific evidence, Purpose and Desire helps us bridge the ideological evolutionary divide.

A professor, biologist, and physiologist 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.

Scott Turner contends. "To be scientists, we force ourselves into a Hobson's choice on the matter: accept intentionality and purposefulness as real attributes of life, which disqualifies you as a scientist; or become a scientist and dismiss life's distinctive quality from your thinking. I have come to believe that this choice actually stands in the way of our having a fully coherent theory of life."

Growing research shows that life's most distinctive quality, shared by all living things, is purpose and desire: maintain homeostasis to sustain life. In Purpose and Desire, Turner draws on the work of Claude Bernard, a contemporary of Darwin revered among physiologists as the founder of experimental medicine, to build on Bernard's "dangerous idea" of vitalism, which seeks to identify what makes "life" a unique phenomenon of nature. To further its quest to achieve a fuller understanding of life, Turner argues, science must move beyond strictly accepted measures that consider only the mechanics of nature.

Dr. J. Scott Turner is a leading biologist/physiologist whose original work and contribution to the field has garnered attention in the New York Times Book Review, Science, Nature, American Scientist, NPR's Science Friday, and other leading media outlets.

Available products
Book Published 2017-09-12 by HarperOne
Book Published 2017-09-12 by HarperOne

Comments

Poses a profound evidence-based challenge to the reductionist foundations of modern biology, showing that living organisms are much more than 'selfish genes.

Ingenious mixture of science and philosophy that points out major defects in Darwinism and then delivers heterodox but provocative solutions... a highly thought-provoking book.

Here at last is a book steeped in the intricacies of how species evolve by an accomplished biologist who dares to address the question of why. This book is a must read for all those who follow the ongoing Neo-Darwinian-Intelligent Design debate.

Illuminating and persuasive. Turner puts his finger on the most troubling problem with today's biological thinking and gives a fresh take on purpose as the solution. Careful readers will find it hard to disagree with him.

Turner argues that modern Darwinism has led us about as far as it can go, leaving questions related to the origin of life unanswered. The scientifically minded general reader will find this contrarian viewpoint - engaging.

All biologists serious about the foundations and epistemology of their discipline should read this. Not since Robert Rosen'sLife Itselfhas there been such an eloquent, well-argued, and convincing argument for a theory of life based on the concept of organism.