The Metaphysics of Evolution
The Metaphysics of Evolution
What conclusions do the facts of cosmic and organic evolution require or permit on the origin and destiny of the world and the individual? From 1881 to 1925 Thomas Whittaker, an Oxford-trained scientist turned philosopher, grappled with this question, which he tried to answer by metaphysical interpretation of the sciences. The majority of the essays in this volume first appeared in Mind, and a few in other journals, while three had not been previously published. Whittaker ranges widely over some of the most daring theories of the past, from the early centuries of the common era (including Apollonius of Tyana and Origen), to the middle ages (including John Scotus Erigena and Nicholas of Cusa), the renaissance (Giordano Bruno, Shakespeare) and the early modern period. Whittaker's own view is that hypothesis and imagination are legitimate aids in the search for truth in both science and philosophy in a new synthesis.
Product details
No date availablePaperback
9781108004374
496 pages
216 × 140 × 28 mm
0.63kg
Table of Contents
- Prologue
- Part I
- Preface to the first part
- 1. A critical essay on the philosophy of history
- 2. 'Mind-stuff' from the historical point of view
- 3. Giordano Bruno
- 4. The musical and the picturesque elements in poetry
- 5. On the nature of thought
- 6. Philosophical antinomies
- 7. Giordano Bruno and his time
- 8. The problem of causality
- 9. Science and idealism
- 10. Correspondence
- Part II
- Preface to the second part
- 11. Apollonius of Tyana
- 12. Celsus and Origen
- 13. Origen as philosopher
- 14. John Scotus Erigena
- 15. Nicholas of Cusa
- 16. Animism, religion and philosophy
- 17. A compendious classification of the sciences
- 18. Teleology and the individual
- 19. A new metaphysic of evolution
- Appendix.
