Creationism and Its Critics in Antiquity

The aim of this book is to argue that the argument concerning intelligent design did not begin in the modern era; the work is not really about "creationism" in the ordinary sense of Biblical literalism, but the special use of the term gives a certain intrigue to the title and suggests a link between our era and that of ancient philosophy, a link which few people have considered. The author convincingly points to elements in some pre-Socratic thinkers which were then taken up and developed by Plato and Aristotle. Then he discusses the challenge of the atomists, who were materialists. Sedley proposes to examine the thesis of divine creation and its critics as treated by a number of eminent ancient philosophers. He suggests that it can be helpful to understand these philosophical positions from the inside, trying to see them through the eyes of their proponents. This can help us to have more sympathetic understanding for the positions we perhaps have not taken seriously before, and to be more detached from those we favor. He first examines the Presocratic philosophers Anaxagoras and Empedocles, then turning to Socrates' "radical contribution to creationist thought." Socrates is often understood as championing a turn from the physical interests of his predecessors to a philosophy centered more on man. This understanding was not universally accepted, because Plato presents the Timaeus as a development of Socrates' thought; the Stoics will also later accept this interpretation of Socrates. The Timaeus is treated as a "seminal text" for centuries of reflection on the origin of the universe. The atomists tried to show that creationist thought can be resisted. Aristotle's "project was to retain all the explanatory benefits of creationism without the need to postulate any controlling intelligence." The Stoics developed a series of arguments which have often been known under the title 'the argument from design.' In an Epilogue, the author looks back over the debate from the perspective of "its most significant direct heir, Galen."
As this brief description reflects, the book is an historical study with a critical component. It is a study of some strands of ancient philosophy centered on evidence for the existence of an intelligence at the source of the order the human mind recognizes in nature, and for the relation between that intelligence and the world as we know it. The study gives grounds for recognizing a continuity in the development of these themes, from the Presocratic philosophers up to the Stoics, and even to Galen. It clarifies certain issues concerning the relative importance of physics and ethics. The author highlights Aristotle's departure from the more strongly "creationist" position of his teachers, in the sense that he brings the purpose within each thing, prescinding from an existing intelligence. Some commentators, such as Thomas Aquinas, would attribute this to a failure of Aristotle to realize the full implications of his own metaphysics. The discussion of the atomists is striking, because their appeal to infinity as a way of overcoming the need to explain the apparent purposiveness of nature is strikingly similar to the views of some modern proponents of a materialistic philosophy. I think this book can be helpful for those teaching about ancient philosophy, and for those working in metaphysics or philosophical cosmology.
J.K. (2013)