Editing Irreducible complexity (section)

==== Up to the 18th century ====

[[Galen]] (1st and 2nd centuries AD) wrote about the large number of parts of the body and their relationships, which observation was cited as evidence for creation.<ref>''De Formatione Foetus''=''The Construction of the Embryo'', chapter 11 in ''Galen: Selected Works'', translated by P. N. Singer, ''The World's Classics'', Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1997 {{ISBN|978-0-19-282450-9}}. One 18th-century reference to Galen is [http://www.anselm.edu/homepage/dbanach/dnr.htm#A13 David Hume ''Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion'', 1779, Part 12]{{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051122134556/http://www.anselm.edu/homepage/dbanach/dnr.htm |date=2005-11-22 }}, §&nbsp;3, page 215. Also see Galen's ''De Usu Partium''=''On the Usefulness of the Parts of the Body'', translated and edited by Margaret Tallmadge May, Ithaca, New York, Cornell University Press, 1968, especially book XVII. For a relevant discussion of Galen and other ancients see pages 121–122, {{cite book |author= Goodman, Lenn Evan |title= Creation and evolution |location= Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon and New York |publisher= Routledge |year= 2010 |isbn= 978-0-415-91380-5}}</ref> The idea that the interdependence between parts would have implications for the origins of living things was raised by writers starting with [[Pierre Gassendi]] in the mid-17th century<ref>''De Generatione Animalium'', chapter III. Partial translation in: Howard B. Adelmann, ''Marcello Malpighi and the Evolution of Embryology'' Ithaca, New York, Cornell University Press, 1966, volume 2, pages 811-812.</ref> and by [[John Wilkins]] (1614–1672), who wrote (citing Galen), "Now to imagine, that all these things, according to their several kinds, could be brought into this regular frame and order, to which such an infinite number of Intentions are required, without the contrivance of some wise Agent, must needs be irrational in the highest degree."<ref>John Wilkins, ''Of the Principles and Duties of Natural Religion'', London, 1675, book I, chapter 6, page 82 [https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo/A66053.0001.001/1:5.6?rgn=div2;view=fulltext Early English Books Online]</ref><ref>"The appeal to irreducible complexity goes back more than three centuries. To quote John Wilkins ...", [https://www.3quarksdaily.com/3quarksdaily/2019/02/darwin-does-devolve-sometimes-so-what.html Paul Braterman "Darwin Does Devolve. Sometimes. So What?" 3 Quarks Daily February 25, 2019]</ref> In the late 17th-century, [[Thomas Burnet (theologian)|Thomas Burnet]] referred to "a multitude of pieces aptly joyn'd" to argue against the [[eternity]] of life.<ref>[http://www.sacred-texts.com/earth/ste/ste07.htm ''The Sacred Theory of the Earth''] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071020060523/http://sacred-texts.com/earth/ste/ste07.htm |date=2007-10-20 }}, 2nd edition, London: Walter Kettilby, 1691. Book I Chapter IV page 43</ref> In the early 18th century, [[Nicolas Malebranche]]<ref>{{cite book|first= Nicolas|last= Malebranche|title= De la recherche de la verité: où l'on traite de la nature de l'esprit de l'homme, & de l'usage qu'il en doit faire pour éviter l'erreur dans les sciences|edition= 6ième|location= Paris|publisher= Chez Michel David|year= 1712|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=Gi0_AAAAcAAJ&q=%22d%C3%A9pendent%20mutuellement%22&pg=RA1-PA57}} Livre 6ième, 2ième partie, chapître 4; English translation: {{cite book|first= Nicholas|last= Malebranche|title= The Search After Truth: With Elucidations of The Search After Truth|editor1= Thomas M. Lennon |editor2= Paul J. Olscamp |location= Cambridge|publisher= Cambridge University Press|year= 1997|isbn= 978-0-521-58004-5|url= https://archive.org/details/searchaftertruth0000male|url-access= registration|page= [https://archive.org/details/searchaftertruth0000male/page/465 465]}} Second paragraph from the end of the chapter, on page 465.</ref> wrote "An organized body contains an infinity of parts that mutually depend upon one another in relation to particular ends, all of which must be actually formed in order to work as a whole", arguing in favor of [[preformation]], rather than [[epigenesis (biology)|epigenesis]], of the individual;<ref>Pages 202-204 of {{cite book|first= Andrew |last= Pyle |chapter= Malebranche on Animal Generation: Preexistence and the Microscope |editor= Smith JH |title= The problem of animal generation in early modern philosophy |publisher= Cambridge University Press |location= Cambridge, UK |year= 2006 |pages= 194–214 |isbn= 978-0-521-84077-4 |chapter-url= https://books.google.com/books?id=EyMWhGH4JgIC&q=%22irreducible+complexity%22+intitle%3Aproblem+intitle%3Aof+intitle%3Ageneration+inauthor%3Asmith&pg=PA204|author-link= Andrew Pyle (philosopher) }}</ref> and a similar argument about the origins of the individual was made by other 18th-century students of natural history.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://talkreason.org/articles/chickegg.cfm|title=The Chicken or the Egg|website=talkreason.org|access-date=7 May 2018|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170429075443/http://www.talkreason.org/articles/chickegg.cfm|archive-date=29 April 2017}}</ref> In his 1790 book, ''[[The Critique of Judgment#Teleology|The Critique of Judgment]]'', [[Immanuel Kant|Kant]] is said by Guyer to argue that "we cannot conceive how a whole that comes into being only gradually from its parts can nevertheless be the cause of the properties of those parts".<ref>This is Guyer's exposition on page 22 of {{cite book|editor= Paul Guyer|title= The Cambridge Companion to Kant|first= Paul|last= Guyer|author-link= Paul Guyer|chapter= Introduction|pages= [https://archive.org/details/cambridgecompani0000unse_i7u7/page/1 1–25]|location= Cambridge|publisher= Cambridge University Press|year= 1992|isbn= 978-0-521-36768-4|chapter-url= https://books.google.com/books?id=pYE5rVzrPNgC&q=%22gradually+from+its+parts%22+intitle%3Acambridge+intitle%3Acompanion+intitle%3Ato+intitle%3Akant+inauthor%3Aguyer&pg=PA22|url= https://archive.org/details/cambridgecompani0000unse_i7u7/page/1}} Guyer adds this parenthetical comment: "(here is where the theory of natural selection removes the difficulty)". See Kant's discussion in section IX of the "First Introduction" to the ''Critique of Judgment'' and in §§&nbsp;61, 64 (where he uses the expression ''wechselsweise abhängt''="reciprocally dependent"), and §&nbsp;66 of "Part Two, First Division". For example, {{cite book |chapter-url= https://books.google.com/books?id=JEXHIcDbBDcC&q=%22reciprocally+dependent%22+intitle%3Acritique+intitle%3Ajudgment+inauthor%3Akant&pg=PA243 |title= Critique of the power of judgment |first= Immanuel |last= Kant |editor1= Paul Guyer |editor2= Eric Matthews |location= Cambridge |publisher= Cambridge University Press |year= 2000 |isbn= 978-0-521-34447-0 |pages= 243–244 |chapter= §&nbsp;64 }} German original {{cite book |title= Kritik der Urtheilskraft |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=6O1Nayo3wWgC&q=akademie+%22wechselsweise+abhängt%22+inauthor:kant&pg=PA371 |volume= 5 |page= 371 |location= Berlin |publisher= Georg Reimer |edition= Königlich Preußischen Akademie der Wissenschaften |series= Kants gesammelte Schriften |year= 1913 |isbn= 978-3-11-001438-9 }}</ref><ref>See also {{cite book|title=Opus Postumum|url=https://archive.org/details/opuspostumumthec00kant|url-access=limited|first=Imanuel|last=Kant|editor=Eckart Förster|translator1=Eckart Förster|translator2=Michael Rosen|location=Cambridge|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=1993|isbn=0-521-31928-5|page=[https://archive.org/details/opuspostumumthec00kant/page/n125 64]|quote=The definition of an organic body is that it is a body, every part of which is there ''for the sake of the other'' (reciprocally as end and, at the same time, means).}}German original {{cite book |title= Kritik der Urtheilskraft |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=6O1Nayo3wWgC&q=akademie+%22wechselsweise+abhängt%22+inauthor:kant&pg=PA371 |volume= 21 |page= 210|location= Berlin |publisher= Georg Reimer |edition= Königlich Preußischen Akademie der Wissenschaften |series= Kants gesammelte Schriften |isbn=978-3-11-090167-2|date = February 1971}}</ref>