Abstract
HUXLEY pointed out that the Darwinian theory of adaptations was incompatible with “the commoner and coarser forms of teleology,” but admitted that “there is a wider teleology, which is not touched by the doctrine of Evolution.” But Dr. Kidd is not satisfied with this, and has written a little book to protest against the attempt of modern science to ignore what is called “Design in Nature.” He does not trouble himself to define with any precision what he means by this phrase, but he seems to mean what is called “the directive intelligence of a personal God,” and we can only repeat what has been said so often, that with this the scientific mood, as such, has nothing whatever to do, though it supplies some of the data with respect to which the philosophic mood may decide as to the validity and fittest formulation of the conception. When Weismann says, to the author's disgust, that the introduction of teleological principles is the ruin of science, he simply expresses the general conviction that their introduction is incongruous with the scientific method. Dr. Kidd does not seem to see that to oppose scientific and teleological interpretations is to oppose incommensurables.
Design in Nature's Story.
By Walter Kidd Pp. ix + 165. (London: James Nisbet and Co., Ltd., 1900).
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T., J. Design in Nature's Story . Nature 63, 178 (1900). https://doi.org/10.1038/063178a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/063178a0
