The metaphor of the architect in Darwin: Chance and free will

Zygon 48 (4):859-874 (2013)
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Abstract

In The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication, published in 1868, Darwin used the metaphor of the architect to argue in favor of natural autonomy and to clarify the role of chance in his theory of adaptive change by variation and natural selection. In this article, I trace the history of this important heuristic instrument in Darwin's writings and letters and suggest that this metaphor was important to Darwin because it helps him to explain the role of chance, and gives an argument in favor of the free will

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10.1111/zygo.12045

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Citations of this work

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The many chances of Charles Darwin. [REVIEW]Charles H. Pence - 2015 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences 53:107-110.

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References found in this work

The variation of animals and plants under domestication.Charles Darwin - 1868 - Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins University Press. Edited by Harriet Ritvo.
The Triumph of the Darwinian Method.Michael T. Ghiselin - 1973 - Philosophy of Science 40 (3):466-467.
Darwin and Design: Does Evolution Have a Purpose?Michael Ruse - 2003 - Cambridge, USA: Harvard University Press.
Darwin was a teleologist.James G. Lennox - 1993 - Biology and Philosophy 8 (4):409-421.

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