Ruse, Michael. Darwin and Design. Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2003.

Abstract

Darwin and Design: Does Evolution Have a Purpose? Is the third volume in what has now stretched to a trilogy, beginning with Monad to Man: The Concept of Progress in Evolutionary Biology and continuing with Mystery of Mysteries: Is Evolution a Social Construction? My aim through these three volumes have been to bring out understanding from several disciplines – philosophy, history, and religion – to answer questions about the nature of science, and conversely to use science to answer questions in the subjects I use as my probe. The underlying concern throughout is with the relationship between science and the culture that produces it, and if and how the two interact. I care about the question of values, of interests, and how and to what extent they appear in science and if and when they are reduced or eliminated through the course of time – or if, in some sense, science is always value-impregnated. Being a committed naturalist and believing that the way to solve problems is by looking at real-life issues, I have based my discussions on a specific case study: evolutionary thought, from its beginning in the eighteenth century down to the present day – a history where the key events was the publication of Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species in 1859.