Purpose and Desire

<p>A professor biologist and physiologist argues that modern Darwinism's materialist and mechanistic biases have led to a scientific dead end unable to define what life is--and only an openness to the qualities of purpose and desire will move the field forward.</p><p>Scott Turner contends. To be scientists we force ourselves into a Hobson's choice on the matter: accept intentionality and purposefulness as real attributes of life which disqualifies you as a scientist; or become a scientist and dismiss life's distinctive quality from your thinking. I have come to believe that this choice actually stands in the way of our having a fully coherent theory of life. </p><p>Growing research shows that life's most distinctive quality shared by all living things is purpose and desire: maintain homeostasis to sustain life. In <em>Purpose and Desire </em> Turner draws on the work of Claude Bernard a contemporary of Darwin revered among physiologists as the founder of experimental medicine to build on Bernard's dangerous idea of vitalism which seeks to identify what makes life a unique phenomenon of nature. To further its quest to achieve a fuller understanding of life Turner argues science must move beyond strictly accepted measures that consider only the mechanics of nature. </p><p>A thoughtful appeal to widen our perspective of biology that is grounded in scientific evidence <em>Purpose and Desire</em> helps us bridge the ideological evolutionary divide.</p>