Intelligent Design : An Intellectual Challenge?

The basic claim of intelligent design is that some significant problems inherent in the core of the scientific theories about the origin of life are being neglected in the mainstream of modern epistemology, scientific thinking, and philosophy of science. The advocates of the intelligent design hold that certain features of the universe and of living things can only be explained by an intelligent cause, not just be reference to an undirected process such as natural selection. They also hold that a proper description of nature should include the notion of ''purpose'' i.e. that teleological descriptions should not in principle be excluded from the scientific literature. A great majority of the scientific community rejects the scientific validity and relevance of these claims. On the other hand, the idea of intelligent design has given rise to some interesting epistemological, methodological, and ontological questions, which are relevant for the formulation and understanding of science. In this book a group of scientists and philosophers discuss these questions. Some of the authors defend the basic ideas of intelligent design while others oppose these ideas.