Faith & Science
Neuroscience & Mind
Edward Feser on Aristotle’s Revenge — Purpose and Essence in Nature
On a new episode of ID the Future, neuroscientist Michael Egnor interviews philosopher Edward Feser about Feser’s new book Aristotle’s Revenge: The Metaphysical Foundations of Physical and Biological Science. Download the podcast or listen to it here.
Scientists can get along without Aristotle’s metaphysics, says Feser, but science can’t; in fact science presupposes Aristotle. Mechanistic views of nature have tried to make nature nothing but particles interacting, but a full understanding of nature requires that we include Aristotelian purpose, or teleology, and essences as well. Ultimately, Feser suggests, this leads us toward evidence for a divine mind behind it all.
Photo: Aristotle, University of Freiburg, by Martin aka Maha, via Flickr (cropped).