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The Advantages of Theft over Toil: The Design Inference and Arguing from Ignorance

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Abstract

Intelligent design theorist William Dembski hasproposed an ``explanatory filter'' fordistinguishing between events due to chance,lawful regularity or design. We show that ifDembski's filter were adopted as a scientificheuristic, some classical developments inscience would not be rational, and thatDembski's assertion that the filter reliablyidentifies rarefied design requires ignoringthe state of background knowledge. Ifbackground information changes even slightly,the filter's conclusion will vary wildly.Dembski fails to overcome Hume's objections toarguments from design.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. History and Philosophy of Science, The University of Melbourne, PO Box 542, Somerville, 3912, Australia

    John S. Wilkins

  2. Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences, Texas A&M University, 3027 Macaulay Street, San Diego, CA, 92106, USA

    Wesley R. Elsberry

Authors
  1. John S. Wilkins
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  2. Wesley R. Elsberry
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Wilkins, J.S., Elsberry, W.R. The Advantages of Theft over Toil: The Design Inference and Arguing from Ignorance. Biology & Philosophy 16, 709–722 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1012282323054

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