{"product_id":"purpose-and-desire-book-j-scott-turner-9780062651563","title":"Purpose and Desire","description":"\u003cp\u003eA professor, biologist, and physiologist argues that modern Darwinism's materialist and mechanistic biases have led to a scientific dead end, unable to define what life is--and only an openness to the qualities of \"purpose and desire\" will move the field forward.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eScott Turner contends. \"To be scientists, we force ourselves into a Hobson's choice on the matter: accept intentionality and purposefulness as real attributes of life, which disqualifies you as a scientist; or become a scientist and dismiss life's distinctive quality from your thinking. I have come to believe that this choice actually stands in the way of our having a fully coherent theory of life.\"\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eGrowing research shows that life's most distinctive quality, shared by all living things, is purpose and desire: maintain homeostasis to sustain life. In Purpose and Desire, Turner draws on the work of Claude Bernard, a contemporary of Darwin revered among physiologists as the founder of experimental medicine, to build on Bernard's \"dangerous idea\" of vitalism, which seeks to identify what makes \"life\" a unique phenomenon of nature. To further its quest to achieve a fuller understanding of life, Turner argues, science must move beyond strictly accepted measures that consider only the mechanics of nature.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eA thoughtful appeal to widen our perspective of biology that is grounded in scientific evidence, Purpose and Desire helps us bridge the ideological evolutionary divide.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50302500897041,"sku":"CIN0062651560G","price":6.52,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":52982129361169,"sku":"CIN0062651560VG","price":6.55,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0062651560.jpg?v=1750842339","url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/products\/purpose-and-desire-book-j-scott-turner-9780062651563","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}