“Darwin Medalist Ernst Mayr says it does. You know him. He wrote a book called What Evolution Is. But maybe you will say he didn’t know what he was talking about.”
—When it comes to science he certainly knows what he’s talking about, but this was a philosophical article written for a philosophical journal.
I can easily find philosophical writings from scientists that say that heliocentricism means that we are nothing special in the universe, but does a sun centered rather than earth centered solar system really mean that? There’s a difference between what the heliocentric theory is, and what someone thinks the philosophical implications are.
It’s unclear to me in the article if by “intelligent design” he merely means the idea of God creating the universe, or if he’s using it in the sense of the Discovery Institute as meaning that nature (somewhat ironically) was not designed in such a way to allow for evolution. If he meant the former, there are many tens of thousands of scientists who vehemently disagree with him, such as Francis Collins who headed the human genome project and started the BioLogos Foundation. But maybe you will say that none of them know what they are talking about.
Do you think Mayr would state philosophically something contrary to what he believed to be scientifically so?
That he published his ides in a philosophical journal seems an irrelevancy unless you are asserting Evolution is philosophy free.
“There’s a difference between what the heliocentric theory is, and what someone thinks the philosophical implications are.”
Different? Yes, but not unconnected and one would have to be pretty obtuse not to understand that.
So then, in your view, Ernst Mayr doesn't know what he's talking about. But you do, of course.