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Single Idea 7648

[filed under theme 26. Natural Theory / A. Speculations on Nature / 2. Natural Purpose / c. Purpose denied ]

Full Idea

The sun was not made in order to heat the earth and all its inhabitants - whom it sometimes burns - any more than the rain was created in order to grow seeds - which it often spoils.

Gist of Idea

The sun and rain weren't made for us; they sometimes burn us, or spoil our seeds

Source

Julien Offray de La Mettrie (Machine Man [1747])

Book Ref

La Mettrie,Julien Offray de: 'Machine Man and Other Writings', ed/tr. Thomson,Ann [CUP 1996], p.25

A Reaction

This denial of Aristotelian (and divine) teleology is as much part of the movement against religion, as are concerns about natural evil, and about the weakness of arguments for God's existence. These facts were obvious long before La Mettrie.

The 14 ideas with the same theme [no aspect of nature contains genuine purpose]:

5990 Theophrastus doubted whether nature could be explained teleologically [Theophrastus, by Gottschalk]
5878 Eyes could be used for a natural purpose, or for unnatural seeing, or for a non-seeing activity [Aristotle]
12044 Only Epicurus denied purpose in nature, for the whole world, or for its parts [Epicurus, by Annas]
12125 Teleological accounts are fine in metaphysics, but they stop us from searching for the causes [Bacon]
12730 We will not try to understand natural or divine ends, or final causes [Descartes]
1588 For Spinoza eyes don't act for purposes, but follow mechanical necessity [Roochnik on Spinoza]
1587 Spinoza strongly attacked teleology, which is the lifeblood of classical logos [Roochnik on Spinoza]
12731 Final causes are figments of human imagination [Spinoza]
7648 The sun and rain weren't made for us; they sometimes burn us, or spoil our seeds [La Mettrie]
7195 If the world aimed at an end, it would have reached it by now [Nietzsche]
2905 'Purpose' is just a human fiction [Nietzsche]
5308 The only human purpose is that created by our genetic history [Wilson,EO]
3504 Chemistry entirely explains plant behaviour [Searle]
5501 People are trying to explain biological teleology in naturalistic causal terms [Lycan]