Redefining Reality - The Intellectual Implications of Modern Science

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life sciences, we need to understand the starting point. Traditionally,
our picture of biology comes from Aristotle, who believed that
species endow their members with the same sort of soul and, thereby,
the same goal. Life is the process of each member of a species trying to
actualize its innate potential. The church took over this view and ranked
the species in order of their perfection in the Great Chain of Being, a
th century off with an unsettled
image of life in the world.
As with the physical sciences, the biological sciences trace
their roots to Aristotle. Recall that Aristotle’s worldview was
teleological: All change is originated within the thing changing and
is geared toward a goal or aim of that thing. For earthly chemical
elements, that meant seeking their natural place in the universe by
moving toward it in a straight line. For living things, however, the
goal is a bit more abstract.
Remember that Aristotle was a student of Plato, and Plato said
that reality was not to be found in the material world because
all material objects are imperfect. Change, for Plato is also
teleological, and if something is changing, it is trying to reach
its goal, which makes it imperfect. A perfect thing would have
no reason to change because it had reached its goal.
rather, the perfect, idealized conception of it. Plato called these
the forms, and they reside not in the world of material things
that we see with our eyes but in the eternally unchanging world
of forms, which we see with the eye of the mind.
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