engleski

On the concept of design as a very general idea in philosophy of science

An article of this size can study only a thin layer of the topic of scientific legitimacy of design in general, and concerning OoL (Origin of Life, the shorthand ‘OoL’ will be used throughout the paper) in particular. This article is an abstract (meta)theoretical study which does not deal with the details of the design problem nor with the current research in the area of OoL. Instead, it is concerned with the concept of design and with general metaphysical (and epistemological) beliefs about the nature of the world, as well as about OoL, which are not in the foreground. These metaphysical beliefs are then transformed into the methodological commitments for any scientific inquiry, complementary with classical requests for scientific theories or hypotheses – explanation and theoretical entrenchment of some kind and degree of predictability and testability – all of which is achieved through empirical observation and experiment. To clarify this, the second section of the essay argues that design is loosely defined, if at all, and it presents a few attempts at its definition, connected with observation of processes that run counter to natural ones, as well as possible ways of recognizing design activity in nature. Because the concept of design is banned, or at least under suspicion as being scientifically illegitimate, the third section discusses two analogies, thereby hoping to comprehend an obvious or camouflaged metaphysical stratum of thought which is frequently presented as a pure scientific matter of fact. These analogies attempt to clarify the scientific legitimacy of other logically (and nomically) possible explanations. The fourth and the fifth sections investigate the logical permissibility of metaphysical assumptions (in the fourth) and epistemological assumptions of designer activity (in the fifth). Based on this investigation, the sixth section conjectures that design cannot be excluded as a source of first life on both metaphysical and epistemological grounds and it proposes that the concept of design could have scientific legitimacy as a very general idea inside a conceptual hierarchy of science, similar to many other metaphysical concepts, such as uniformity, predictability, scientific laws and the intelligibility of the universe. Finally, this makes it reasonable to conclude that, under some interpretations of philosophy of science, the scientific legitimacy of design could be reconsidered.

Origin of Life ; Philosophy of Science ; Concept of Design

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