The term Telos means that for which something is done or that toward which animate beings strive. Thus, an eye is for seeing, a walk for health, a house for shelter, and a book for reading. Little t teleology so conceived, though, mustn’t be confused with big t Teleology, according to which the whole of nature is either progressing, by virtue of some world-historical or cosmic force, toward some overarching purpose or is already the embodiment of some divine plan.
That teleology needn’t entail Teleology was evolutionary theory’s great insight. From the moment that organic life first appeared on Earth some 4.5 billion years ago, natural selection has been an inexorable, unceasing, and entirely mindless process of winnowing and sifting through a set of design plans. The geological record is littered with plant and animal species falling extinct under the pressures of climatic and geographical changes. Only those designs that natural selection has blindly hit upon and that have worked, designs that are well adapted to the specific environment and that therefore confer upon certain organisms or certain species some ostensible advantage, will be inheritable by their progeny. This implies that there is no Higher End, no Higher Purpose that governs the actions of intelligent and unintelligent life, only local purposes fitting into the materialist picture of “selfish genes” seeking to pass on genetic information to their descendants ad infinitum. There is therefore no Teleology from on high, only teleology all the way down. And there is no more need for what Daniel Dennett has called the “mind-first” hypothesis either.
Nothing under the sun is exempt from the process of natural selection—not eyes or wings and certainly not minds. Thanks to research in evolutionary theory over the past 150 years, it is no longer mysterious how an ignorant, mindless machine, by means of chance, trial and error, and gradual modifications taking place over long swaths of time, could have produced sophisticated, cognizant machines able to reflect upon the process itself. What recommends the evolutionary story of the emergence of intelligent life is not just its plausibility; it is the fact, confirmed time and again by studies in geology, genetics, cell biology, zoology, and botany, that it is true.
1. According to the passage, the principal difference between teleology and Teleology could be understood in terms of the difference betweenA. quality and quantity.
B. example and concept.
C.property and object.
D. cause and effect.
E. part and whole.
2. The primary purpose of the passage is to show howA. new species come into being through a process called natural selection.
B. evolution represents a change in our comprehension of all forms of life.
C. natural selection shows us how evolution through a set of randomly generated, rather than intentional, procedures is possible.
D. intelligent and sentient creatures are the inevitable results of natural selection.
E. absolute ignorance works to create living beings much in the same way that absolute wisdom does.
3. Which of the following does the passage cite as being consistent with the theory of natural selection?I. the plurality of species
II. the complex nature of some organisms
III. the evolution of sentience
A. I Only
B. III Only
C. I and III Only
D. II and III Only
E. I, II, and III
4. Based on the author’s statement that evolution has no need for the “mind-first” hypothesis, it can be inferred thatA. the first appearance of living things did not involve an intelligent being.
B. unintelligent beings necessarily follow from an intelligent being.
C. in human beings, mental life came before physical existence.
D. living beings had to have come from multicellular organisms.
E. experiments in ordering organic life finally yielded intelligent design.
5. Based on the passage, it can be inferred that the theory that all life on Earth was created as part of a divine plan would be an example ofI. teleology.
II. Teleology.
III. the idea that teleology may not require Teleology.
A. I Only
B. II Only
C. III Only
D. I and II Only
E. II and III Only