Humanity in a Creative Universe

Much of Stuart Kauffman's work in the philosophy of evolutionary biology has centered on the question of what he calls "prestatability" in evolution: that is, whether or not science can precisely predict the future development of biological features in organisms, using a singular "Final Theory" of evolution. In this book, Kauffman argues that the development of life on earth is not prestatable, because no theory could ever fully account for the limitless variability of evolution. He believes that the biological universe's primary trait is that it is creative, and that acknowledging this creativity will lead to a radically different way in which humans view themselves and all other living beings. It is an argument against Reductive Materialism.

Kauffman also asserts that man's Modern preoccupation to explain all things with scientific law has deadened our creative natures. In his words, he aims for the book to be "one that revises our scientific world view of the universe as entirely entailed by law." Instead, he advocates an approach to science that accounts for "unprestatable" creativity, thus allowing humans to fully realize their creative selves. The book will build off the ideas developed in his last two works, Reinventing the Sacred andInvestigations. Incorporating philosophers like Kant and Descartes, as well as the science of Newton and Darwin,Humanity in a Creative Universe is Stuart Kauffman's argument for a creative and unpredictable view of modern science.

Stuart A. Kauffman was educated in Philosophy, Psychology and Physiology at Dartmouth and Oxford, obtained his medical degree from UCSF in 1968 and has devoted himself to often seminal work in biology and areas of physics and economics since.