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Can I read On Purpose on EtoBox?
On Purpose by Michael Ruse is a health book available to read on EtoBox.
What is On Purpose about?
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 princi
Who reads On Purpose?
It is typically read by readers building habits, skills, productivity or wellbeing.
Common subject areas: self-improvement, productivity, wellness.
- Author
- Michael Ruse
- Publisher
- Princeton University Press
- Published
- 2018
- Language
- EN
- ISBN
- 9780691172460
- Category
- health
- Subjects
- History, Biology, Philosophy
- Rating
- 3.52 / 5 (47 ratings)
- Updated
- 2026-03-14
Other editions & translations
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