Darwin’s marvelous idea. The role of creativity in the evolution of life

Abstract

According to Darwin, the complexity of organic structures can be understood as the effect of a blind algorithmic process of step-by-step accumulation of design forced by natural selection. That is why the materialist philosopher Daniel Dennett calls Darwin’s theory «dangerous» for the religious belief in a divine creator. However, one can doubt whether Darwin has banished all teleological thinking from biology. In the view of the Frankfurt theory of evolution, organisms can be conceived as machines existing for the reason of gaining the energy necessary for their further existence. This definition underscores that organisms exist for their own sake; they are, as Kant puts it, ends in themselves. So, it is not the mere contingency of variation and selection but the subordination of these processes under the intentionality of self-perseverance, which in the end generates the form of a living being. From such a perspective, the various traits of animal design can be conceived as manifestations of a sort of creative power, which converts Darwin’s theory into a marvelous idea even for the religious believer