Skip to content
Licensed Unlicensed Requires Authentication Published by De Gruyter December 19, 2017

The Deteleologization of Nature: Darwin’s Language in On the Origin of Species

  • Bárbara Jiménez Pazos EMAIL logo
From the journal Metaphysica

Abstract

Although a detailed analysis of Darwin’s lexicon in On the Origin of Species has not been undertaken, critical literature claims that there are lexical signs of a teleological nature in the language used in this work. I intend to refute, through an analysis of the lexicon in Darwin’s work, the criticisms that claim a teleological subtext in Darwin’s language and that conceive said language to be a reflection of a teleological conception of nature. I will place special emphasis on the lexical material that Darwin uses in those paragraphs dedicated to the description of the function of Natural Selection.

References

Barlow, N., ed. 2005. The Autobiography of Charles Darwin, 1809–1882. New York: W.W. Norton & Company.Search in Google Scholar

Darwin, C. 1859. On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life. London: John Murray.10.5962/bhl.title.39967Search in Google Scholar

Darwin, C. 1861. On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life. London: John Murray.10.5962/bhl.title.39967Search in Google Scholar

Dawkins, R. 2009. The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution. London: Bantham Press.Search in Google Scholar

Dear, P. 2006. The Intelligibility of Nature: How Science Makes Sense of the World. Chicago & London: The University of Chicago Press.10.7208/chicago/9780226139500.001.0001Search in Google Scholar

Dennett, D. C. 1996. Darwin’s Dangerous Idea: Evolution and the Meanings of Life. London: Penguin Books.Search in Google Scholar

Ghiselin, M. T. 1994. “Darwin’s Language May Seem Teleological, but His Thinking Is Another Matter.” Biology and Philosophy 9:489–492.10.1007/BF00850377Search in Google Scholar

Gould, S. J. 2002. The Structure of Evolutionary Theory. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.10.2307/j.ctvjsf433Search in Google Scholar

Hidalgo-Downing, L. 2014. “The Role of Negative-Modal Synergies in Charles Darwin’s the Origin of Species.” In Evaluation in Context, Pragmatics & beyond New Series, edited by G. Thompson and L. Alba-Juez, Vol. 242. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins.10.1075/pbns.242.13hidSearch in Google Scholar

Hyman, S. E. 1962. The Tangled Bank: Darwin, Marx, Frazer and Freud as Imaginative Writers. New York: Atheneum.Search in Google Scholar

Lennox, J. G. 1993. “Darwin Was a Teleologist.” Biology and Philosophy 8:409–421.10.1007/BF00857687Search in Google Scholar

Levine, G. 2011. Darwin the Writer. Oxford: Oxford University Press.10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199608430.001.0001Search in Google Scholar

Mayr, E. 2003. What Evolution Is. London: Phoenix.Search in Google Scholar

Paley, W. 1802. Natural Theology; Or, Evidences of the Existence and Attributes of the Deity. Philadelphia: John Morgan (printed by H. Maxwell).10.5962/bhl.title.51240Search in Google Scholar

Richards, R. J. 1992. The Meaning of Evolution: The Morphological Construction and Ideological Reconstruction of Darwin’s Theory. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.10.7208/chicago/9780226712055.001.0001Search in Google Scholar

Richards, R. J. 2011. “Darwinian Enchantment.” In The Joy of Secularism: 11 Essays for How We Live Now, edited by G. Levine. Princeton: Princeton University Press.10.1515/9781400838424-013Search in Google Scholar

Ruse, M. 1986. Taking Darwin Seriously: A Naturalistic Approach to Philosophy. New York: Blackwell.Search in Google Scholar

Sloan, P. R. 2005. “It Might Be Called Reverence.” In Darwinism and Philosophy, edited by V. Hösle and C. Illies. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press.Search in Google Scholar

Sober, E. 1993. The Nature of Selection: Evolutionary Theory in Philosophical Focus. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.10.7208/chicago/9780226308883.001.0001Search in Google Scholar

Sulloway, F. J. 1985. “Darwin’s Early Intellectual Development: An Overview of the Beagle Voyage (1831–1836).” In The Darwinian Heritage, edited by D. Kohn. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Search in Google Scholar

von Sydow, M. 2005. “Charles Darwin: A Christian Undermining Christianity?” In Science and Beliefs: From Natural Philosophy to Natural Science, 1700–1900, edited by D. M. Knight and M. D. Eddy. Burlington: Ashgate.Search in Google Scholar

Published Online: 2017-12-19
Published in Print: 2018-08-28

© 2018 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

Downloaded on 26.5.2024 from https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/mp-2018-0009/html
Scroll to top button