If there is no design, then all instance of design are analyzed in terms of mechanism. Purpose is only apparent purpose, not real purpose.The purpose of your heart is to pump blood through the human body, and it is a good place for doing so, not because some intelligent being put it there, but because blind processes selected for it. In other words, the effects of purpose are produced without actual purpose. If the universe is a nonteleological system, then the human brain is, in the final analysis, a nonteological system. But claim that, for example you believe in evolution BECAUSE there is good reason to believe it, seems to imply a real teleology aimed a truth. . How can real purpose appear in the human thought process if the universe is a nonteleological system?
1 comment:
Two questions:
1) Do you mean to say that believing something for a reason is an instance of teleology?
2) How would you describe the difference between merely apparent purpose (say, in a heart brought about by undguided evolution) and genuine purpose? Is it that in the latter case, the heart in an appropriately analogous sense 'wants' to pump blood? Or does the difference lie merely in the generation of the two instances (blind mechanism vs. creation)?
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