Nature, design, and science : the status of design in natural science /

Ratzsch (Calvin College, author of Science and Its Limits, 2000) analyzes in detail the concept of design in nature and science. His stated aim is to show that appeals to supernatural design in science are not illegitimate in principle. Of greatest interest will probably be Ratzsch's sophisticated elaboration of the assumptions required for arguments from design. His concept of "actual designedness" requires a "relevant correlation to mind," which is reminiscent of the intuition expressed by Philo in Hume's Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion: "the cause or causes of order in the universe probably bear some remote analogy to human intelligence." (Dialogues oddly is not in the bibliography, though other works by Hume are.) Ratzsch's discussion will greatly interest anyone impressed by the "anthropic principle" popularized by Barrow and Tipler in The Anthropic Cosmological Principle, 1986: that nature is so designed that humans might evolve (Barrow and Tipler's work is not cited, though Barrow's The Artful Universe, CH, May'96, is). Ratzsch is well versed in current literature in the philosophy of science and in works relevant to design in nature. His analysis should provoke further inquiry into the concept of design and its place in natural science. Extensive notes with references and a fairly extensive bibliography. Upper-division undergraduate through faculty and researchers; professionals. H. C. Byerly emeritus, University of Arizona