From Aristotle to Darwin and Back Again: A Journey in Final Causality, Species and Evolution »

Darwin's theory of evolution remains controversial, even though most scientists, philosophers, and even theologians accept it, in some form. The controversy erupts when the theory is used to try to explain everything and to deny the role of a Creator or a purpose to life. It is then that philosophers and theologians cry, "Foul!".

Foreword Christoph Cardinal Schönborn ix

Preface 1

I Aristotelian Prologue 3

II The Mechanist Objection 21

III Finality and Evolution 38

A Fixism 38

B Transformism 49

1 Lamarck 49

2 Darwin without Evolution 58

3 Evolution without Darwin 72

4 Darwin and Malthus 88

5 Evolution and Teleology 95

IV Bergsonism and Teleology 107

V The Limits of Mechanism 125

VI The Constants of Biophilosophy 142

Appendix I Linnaeus: Observations on the Three Kingdoms of Nature 161

Appendix II Darwin in Search of Species 165

Notes 187

Index 233