Darwin's Causal Argument Against Creationism

IF 1.4 1区 哲学 0 PHILOSOPHY
Hayley Clatterbuck
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Abstract

In the Origin, Darwin forwards two incompatible lines of attack on special creationism. First, he argues that imperfect or functionless traits are evidence against design. Second, he argues that since special creationism can be made compatible with any observation, it is unscientific and explanatorily vacuous. In later works, Darwin shifts to an argument that he finds much more persuasive and which would undermine theistic evolutionism as well. He argues that variation is random with respect to selection and that this demonstrates that there is no design in the biological world. I examine why Darwin found the argument from independence of variation and selection more compelling than the argument from imperfection. I argue that Darwin utilized general principles of causal inference, akin to those used in modern causal modeling, to rule out any unified cause behind the evolutionary process. 
达尔文反对神创论的因果论证
在《起源》一书中,达尔文对特殊创造论提出了两条互不相容的攻击路线。首先,他认为不完美或无功能的特征是反对设计的证据。其次,他认为,由于特殊的创造论可以与任何观察相兼容,它是不科学的,而且在解释上是空洞的。在后来的著作中,达尔文转向了一个他认为更有说服力的论点,这也会破坏有神论进化论。他认为,在选择方面,变异是随机的,这表明生物学世界中没有设计。我研究了为什么达尔文发现从变异和选择的独立性出发的论点比从不完美出发的论点更有说服力。我认为达尔文利用了因果推理的一般原理,类似于现代因果建模中使用的原理,来排除进化过程背后的任何统一原因。
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来源期刊
Philosophers' Imprint
Philosophers' Imprint PHILOSOPHY-
CiteScore
3.20
自引率
7.10%
发文量
27
审稿时长
20 weeks
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