I have been reviewing a book by philosopher Michael Ruse. See my earliest posts,here andhere. Overall,On Purpose left this reviewer conflicted. Certainly Ruse's interests take e'er been my interests, and his writing mode is unfailingly lively and engaging. Moreover, I have learned a great deal of history and philosophy of science from him over the years. However, he recalls something C. S. Lewis one time said of his Anthroposophical friend Owen Barfield: "he has read all the right books but has got the wrong affair out of every i. It is equally if he spoke your language but mispronounced information technology" ([1955] 1991, 110). Ruse and Barfield could not be more different equally writers and thinkers, but parallels are, after all, not affinities. In today's pop parlance I regard Ruse as afrenemy (a author whose piece of work is always worth reading and indeed a joy to read, but e'er somehow fundamentally incorrect and wrongheaded). Ruse's cocksure certainties on everything from development to religion are sometimes agreeable and often bewildering. 1 has to smile at Ruse's excesses. He fits what the Jewish author/philosopher Israel Zwangwill in one case said of atheist George Bernard Shaw: The way he "believes in himself is very refreshing in these atheistic days when so many people believe in no God at all." In fact, Shaw might be a good friction match because the Irish playwright somewhen exchanged his disbelief for a vague mysticism. Ruse certainly is non there yet, just his admission to being "sympathetic to a panpsychic perspective" (235) might reveal some chinks forming in the atheist'southward armor.

Whatever else might be said of Ruse and his work, like all his books this ane is worth having on the shelf. Interesting, instructive, and at times exasperating, information technology would make a wonderful required reading for any upper level undergraduate or graduate seminar on the history and philosophy of science or even for seminary students ready to acuminate their atoning knives.On Purposedemonstrates the fine line between polemical drumbeating and wishful thinking that makes an obstreperous hedgehog like Ruse such interesting company.

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