On Purpose

by Michael Ruse

A brief, accessible history of the idea of purpose in Western thought, from ancient Greece to the present

Can we live without the idea of purpose? Should we even try to? Kant thought we were stuck with purpose, and even Darwin’s theory of natural selection, which profoundly shook the idea, was unable to kill it. Indeed, teleological explanation―what Aristotle called understanding in terms of “final causes”―seems to be making a comeback today, as both religious proponents of intelligent design and some prominent secular philosophers argue that any explanation of life without the idea of purpose is missing something essential.

In On Purpose , Michael Ruse explores the history of the idea of purpose in philosophical, religious, scientific, and historical thought, from ancient Greece to the present. Accessibly written and filled with literary and other examples, the book examines “purpose” thinking in the natural and human world. It shows how three ideas about purpose have been at the heart of Western thought for more than two thousand years. In the Platonic view, purpose results from the planning of a human or divine being; in the Aristotelian, purpose stems from a tendency or principle of order in the natural world; and in the Kantian, purpose is essentially heuristic, or something to be discovered, an idea given substance by Darwin’s theory of evolution through natural selection.

On Purpose traces the profound and fascinating implications of these ways of thinking about purpose. Along the way, it takes up tough questions about the purpose of life and whether it’s possible to have meaning without purpose, revealing that purpose is still a vital and pressing issue.

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction, History

320 pages, Hardcover

Published November 14, 2017

About the author

Michael Escott Ruse was a British-born Canadian philosopher of science who specialised in the philosophy of biology and worked on the relationship between science and religion, the creation–evolution controversy, and the demarcation problem within science. Ruse began his career teaching at The University of Guelph and spent many years at Florida State University.

Reviews

[Ben McFarland · Rating 4 out of 5]

Is this what philosophy books are like? If so, I want to read more of them. Here Michael Ruse takes on an important question (purpose), gives a historical overview and spends the last few chapters working through specific issues and giving his own take on what makes for purpose. Ruse truly listens to all and sees the light in each of his subjects, and in the end commits to a particular standpoint: in his case, the Kantian view that purpose is a useful heuristic. At one point he likens purpose to the imaginary number i: it's necessary for accounting for life's goal orientation, but it's not "real" in the same sense as integers. Maybe I'm more along the line that purpose is like the number pi: impossible to describe with ratios but possible to know in other ways, and to calculate to impressive precision with dedication. The discussion of the area most near and dear to my own heart, purpose in biology and natural history, ends up ambivalent for me. He pulls out the old standard arguments (the carbon resonance level for stellar fusion, the possibility of silicon-based life) but at the end of the day his rebuttals to these specific examples seem to miss the point, and it seems like we go down a long road to end with a shrug. Nevertheless, Ruse makes a welcome companion even and especially where I disagree. What's most impressive about this book is its accessibility, which welcomes all, and which makes me recommend it.

[Logan Carter · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book discusses approaches to purpose from Platonic, Aristotelian, Kantian, and Darwinian perspectives. I like that Ruse does not go into philosophical attack mode. Rather, he outlines historical perspectives on what the purpose of life is. He even offers many religious viewpoints, although he does not share those beliefs. This book is not overly complicated when it comes to ethics (as many books on this subject are). He does add some humor that makes the reading enjoyable and accessible to casual philosophy readers.

[Yonatan Cohen · Rating 2 out of 5]

While I very much enjoyed the first half, in which he goes through the history and evolution of various conceptions of teleology, the second half felt to be overly pessimistic of modern ideas of "purpose." The Author's own thoughts and theories felt inadequate in light of his critical polemics throughout the rest of the work, and the casual tone adopted in the last chapter failed to engender the sympathy he was hoping to garner regarding how he thinks we should think of our own "purpose."