Looking “For What Is in Accordance with Nature”: Aquinas on Evolution and Speciation, in Response to Mariusz Tabaczek
Mariusz Tabaczek's Theistic Evolution offers a significant contribution to Thomistic thinking on evolution. This article nonetheless criticises its account of species and speciation. Biology challenges rigid species boundaries. Tabaczek's response – distinguishing “metaphysical” from “biol...
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| Contributors: | |
| Format: | Electronic Review |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
| Published: |
2025
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| In: |
Theology and science
Year: 2025, Volume: 23, Issue: 4, Pages: 959-964 |
| Review of: | Theistic evolution (Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2024) (Davison, Andrew)
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| RelBib Classification: | CF Christianity and Science NBD Doctrine of Creation VA Philosophy YA Natural sciences |
| Further subjects: | B
Book review
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| Online Access: |
Volltext (kostenfrei) |
| Summary: | Mariusz Tabaczek's Theistic Evolution offers a significant contribution to Thomistic thinking on evolution. This article nonetheless criticises its account of species and speciation. Biology challenges rigid species boundaries. Tabaczek's response – distinguishing “metaphysical” from “biological species” – risks separating metaphysical reality from empirical observation, weakening Thomist epistemological realism. The invocation of divine agency in speciation (and generation or propagation) also sits uneasily with Thomas's conviction that natural processes should be explained in terms of (divinely given) natural capacities. Thomist metaphysics can be open to challenges from empirical observation, with a flexibility grounded in its synthesis of Aristotelian and Platonic insights. |
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| ISSN: | 1474-6719 |
| Reference: | Kritik in "Response to Replies to Theistic Evolution: A Contemporary Aristotelian-Thomistic Perspective (2025)"
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| Contains: | Enthalten in: Theology and science
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1080/14746700.2025.2550556 |
