Logos to Bios: Evolutionary Theory in Light of Plato, Aristotle, and Neoplatonism (By Wynand De Beer)

Abstract

Reviewed by: Logos to Bios: Evolutionary Theory in Light of Plato, Aristotle, and Neoplatonism by Wynand De Beer Aasim Hasany (bio) Logos to Bios: Evolutionary Theory in Light of Plato, Aristotle, and Neoplatonism Wynand De Beer Brooklyn: Angelico Press, 2018. 278 Pages. Those familiar with the history of Islamic science undoubtedly recognize the influence of Greek philosophy, especially Aristotelianism and Neoplatonism, in shaping the Islamic scientific understanding of the natural world. It was after all the Greek philosophical understanding of causality (material, efficient, formal, and final) which set the context in which Muslims studied the natural world. Premodern science in Islam was therefore an empirical study of nature within the context of certain metaphysical presuppositions which were taken from both religious scripture and Greek philosophy. The rise of modern science occurred when the central tenets of Greek, particularly Aristotelian, philosophy were discarded in favour of a mechanistic [End Page 114] and materialist philosophy of nature. As such, a key ingredient in the metaphysical “glue” which held together much of the medieval Islamic scientific tradition was no longer relevant in shaping the modern understanding of the natural world. For many Muslim thinkers, especially those associated with the Traditionalist school of thought popularized by Seyyed Hossein Nasr, the rejection of traditional philosophical principles by modern science has led to a catastrophic paradigm shift which has impoverished our understanding of the natural world. For Nasr, the separation of modern science from traditional cosmological doctrines has yielded a “profane” knowledge which while detailed in information is bereft of wisdom and empty of any connection to the sacred.1 Among the key linchpins which keep the wheel of modern science spinning is the Neo-Darwinian theory of evolution. This theory, while based on certain empirical observations and experiments is so inextricably linked to philosophical naturalism and materialism, that many leading evolutionary biologists fail to acknowledge that their so called “scientific” understanding of nature is laden with taken-for-granted philosophical commitments. This unfortunate reality is one of the reasons for the wholescale neglect of non-Darwinian theories of evolution from holding any sway in the mainstream scientific community. Logos to Bios, which is based on the doctoral dissertation of Wynand De Beer at the University of South Africa, challenges the supremacy of Neo-Darwinism on empirical and philosophical grounds. The book does not advocate a crude “creationism,” but rather seeks an alternate scientific theory of evolution which would be both empirically true and faithful to the major tenets of Greek philosophy. De Beer’s main argument is that Neo-Darwinism needs to be rejected for its empirical failures (i.e., it cannot adequately explain its claim of macro-evolutionary change among species) and philosophical error and incompatibility with Greek philosophy (i.e., its untenable commitment to “randomness” and “purposelessness” in nature). Although the book does not focus on Islamic thought per se, it is of definite interest to those engaged in the religion vs. science debates in Islam and is replete with quotations from several contemporary Muslim thinkers, including Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Martin Lings (d. 2005), and Osman Bakar, whose critiques of modern evolutionary thinking assist De Beer’s attack on Neo-Darwinism. Chapters 1 to 3 offer a whirlwind overview of some seminal ideas in Greek philosophy and metaphysics. The scope here is wide and the author surveys Greek ideas on causality and cosmogenesis from the early Presocratics to the Neoplatonists (almost a millennium of Greek thought!). In these chapters the author asserts, rather than argues, for the supremacy of the Platonic understanding of evolution (as a teleological unfolding of innate possibilities) over the Neo-Darwinian model which views biological phenomena as a purposeless chain of events determined by random mutation and natural selection. De Beer’s Platonic [End Page 115] commitments are interjected throughout the first three chapters and make it clear that his goal in the book is to resuscitate a Platonic understanding of nature in which the world of nature (bios) is indelibly linked to the world of intelligence (logos). Unfortunately, the breadth is greater than the depth in these chapters, and the author would have done better in focusing more deeply on some of the more salient tenets of the...