The Tinkerer's Accomplice: How Design Emerges from Life Itself
A physiologist presents a provocative and scientifically rigorous new perspective on Darwinism, design, and why the living world works so well.
When they contemplate nature, they see evidence of design at work. So it is jarring when biologists insist that this perception is all wrong. What most people see as design, they say—purposeful, directed, even intelligent—is only an illusion. But in these days of increasingly assertive challenges to Darwinism, the question becomes acute: is our perception of design simply a mental figment, or is there something deeper at work?
Physiologist Scott Turner argues that the apparent design of the living world can be accounted for scientifically. But to do it, we must consider a dimension that modern molecular biology often ignores: the dynamic interaction between living organisms and their environment. By combining environmental physiology and natural selection, we begin to understand the beautiful fit between the form life takes and how life works.
In The Tinkerer's Accomplice, Scott Turner takes up the question of design as a very real problem in biology; his solution poses challenges to all sides in this critical debate.<
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The Tinkerer's Accomplice: How Design Emerges from Life Itself
A physiologist presents a provocative and scientifically rigorous new perspective on Darwinism, design, and why the living world works so well.
When they contemplate nature, they see evidence of design at work. So it is jarring when biologists insist that this perception is all wrong. What most people see as design, they say—purposeful, directed, even intelligent—is only an illusion. But in these days of increasingly assertive challenges to Darwinism, the question becomes acute: is our perception of design simply a mental figment, or is there something deeper at work?
Physiologist Scott Turner argues that the apparent design of the living world can be accounted for scientifically. But to do it, we must consider a dimension that modern molecular biology often ignores: the dynamic interaction between living organisms and their environment. By combining environmental physiology and natural selection, we begin to understand the beautiful fit between the form life takes and how life works.
In The Tinkerer's Accomplice, Scott Turner takes up the question of design as a very real problem in biology; his solution poses challenges to all sides in this critical debate.<
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The Tinkerer's Accomplice: How Design Emerges from Life Itself
A physiologist presents a provocative and scientifically rigorous new perspective on Darwinism, design, and why the living world works so well.
When they contemplate nature, they see evidence of design at work. So it is jarring when biologists insist that this perception is all wrong. What most people see as design, they say—purposeful, directed, even intelligent—is only an illusion. But in these days of increasingly assertive challenges to Darwinism, the question becomes acute: is our perception of design simply a mental figment, or is there something deeper at work?
Physiologist Scott Turner argues that the apparent design of the living world can be accounted for scientifically. But to do it, we must consider a dimension that modern molecular biology often ignores: the dynamic interaction between living organisms and their environment. By combining environmental physiology and natural selection, we begin to understand the beautiful fit between the form life takes and how life works.
In The Tinkerer's Accomplice, Scott Turner takes up the question of design as a very real problem in biology; his solution poses challenges to all sides in this critical debate.<
J. Scott Turner is Associate Professor at SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, Syracuse.
Table of Contents
CONTENTS Prologue 1 Cleanthes’ Dilemma 2 Bernard Machines 3 The Joy of Socks 4 Blood River 5 Knowledgeable Bones 6 Embryonic Origami 7 A Gut Feeling 8 An Intentional Aside 9 Points of Light 10 Pygmalion’s Gift 11 Biology’s Bright Lines Notes References Acknowledgments Index
What People are Saying About This
Turner reminds us that, to have a coherent science of biology, we must begin by considering how life functions at the level of the organism. Genes matter, but in the end they play only an indirect role. Physiologists have too rarely viewed their subject in a wider evolutionary and environmental context, an omission Turner does much to remedy. An active investigator of long experience, he illuminates concepts with examples from the experimental trenches, from cellular systems to data from organisms in the field. Whether or not one agrees with him, his case for the necessity of such a synthesis remains persuasive.
Geerat Vermeij
Physiologists have traditionally had little to say about evolution, but in this important book, Scott Turner brings his deep understanding of the workings of termite mounds, circulatory systems, brains, and other complex internal environments to bear on the role of design in evolution. Anyone interested in arguments about intelligent design should read this book, in which Turner shows that what appears to us as intentionality exists and evolves in the absence of a brain or an intelligent creator. — Geerat Vermeij, University of California at Davis
Steven Vogel
Turner reminds us that, to have a coherent science of biology, we must begin by considering how life functions at the level of the organism. Genes matter, but in the end they play only an indirect role. Physiologists have too rarely viewed their subject in a wider evolutionary and environmental context, an omission Turner does much to remedy. An active investigator of long experience, he illuminates concepts with examples from the experimental trenches, from cellular systems to data from organisms in the field. Whether or not one agrees with him, his case for the necessity of such a synthesis remains persuasive. — Steven Vogel, Duke University, author of Comparative Biomechanics: Life's Physical World
