On Greek Philosophy, Creationism, and Evolutionary Theory—Wynand De Beer—Author of From Logos to Bios: Evolutionary Theory in Light of Plato, Aristotle & Neoplatonism
Finding Genius Podcast
Richard Jacobs
4.4 • 1K Ratings
🗓️ 1 April 2019
⏱️ 43 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Wynand De Beer has always had an interest in evolution as a mechanism for life on Earth, but it wasn't until about a decade ago that he really started diving into the study of it, guided by a question similar to the one that framed his doctoral work at the University of South Africa: is it possible to reconcile the Christian belief in creationism with the scientific evidence for evolution, and if so, to what degree? In the search for an answer, Wynand De Beer found himself immersed in Greek philosophy and surprised by what he was learning about cosmology, biology, and the connections between the two. He has since authored an account of all this and more, titled From Logos to Bios: Evolutionary Theory in Light of Plato, Aristotle & Neoplatonism.
Wynand De Beer offers a compelling conversation that touches on a variety of topics, including the mathematical foundations of the cosmos taught by Pythagoras, Platonism versus Neoplatonism, Aristotle as the first Western thinker to analyze biological phenomena among pants and animals, the concept that matter is shaped by the soul, physical versus metaphysical realities, how quantum behavior might be compatible with notions of a higher reality, the inaccurate conflation between evolution and Darwinism, the standard scientific explanation of the mind and the rebuttals to it, and the potentially imminent merge between man and machine.
Tune in for the full conversation and find his book on Amazon
Transcript
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| 0:58.0 | Thank you. Okay, Wyndon, so thank you for coming and I wanted to ask you about your book |
| 1:08.8 | from Logos to Bios, Evolutionary Theory in light of Plato, Aristotle, and Neoplatonism. |
| 1:15.0 | Yes, thank you very much for inviting me, Richard. |
| 1:18.0 | Certainly the pleasure is all mine. |
| 1:20.0 | So tell me about this book. |
| 1:22.0 | What led you to come up with the ideas in it and what is the book about basically? |
| 1:27.0 | I strongly had an interest in the concept of evolution as a mechanism for life deploying on Earth as it were. But it's only |
| 1:37.0 | over the past decade or so that I really have been climbing into it in some depth. |
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