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Redundant Complexity: A Critical Analysis of Intelligent Design in Biochemistry

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2022

Niall Shanks  and
Karl H. Joplin
Niall Shanks
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, Department of Biological Sciences, East Tennessee State University
Karl H. Joplin
Affiliation:
Department of Biological Sciences, East Tennessee State University
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Abstract

Biological systems exhibit complexity at all levels of organization. It has recently been argued by Michael Behe that at the biochemical level a type of complexity exists—irreducible complexity—that cannot possibly have arisen as the result of natural, evolutionary processes and must instead be the product of (supernatural) intelligent design. Recent work on self-organizing chemical reactions calls into question Behe's analysis of the origins of biochemical complexity. His central interpretative metaphor for biochemical complexity, that of the well-designed mousetrap that ceases to function if critical parts are absent, is undermined by the observation that typical biochemical systems exhibit considerable redundancy and overlap of function. Real biochemical systems, we argue, manifest redundant complexity—a characteristic result of evolutionary processes.

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 66 , Issue 2 , June 1999 , pp. 268 - 282
Copyright
Copyright © 1999 by the Philosophy of Science Association

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Footnotes

†

Send requests for reprints to Dr. Niall Shanks, Department of Philosophy—Box 70656, East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, TN 37614 USA.

‡

We would like to thank George Gale for helpful comments, as well as the anonymous referees for Philosophy of Science.

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