Natural Processes

Mechanistic (0) — Purposeful (100) · one of the 20 worldview axes

The six statements

Each axis is measured by six statements answered on a five-point scale. Statements 1, 2 and 5 pull toward Mechanistic; 3, 4 and 6 toward Purposeful.

  1. Things in nature are just matter obeying physical laws; there is no built-in direction or goal in any of it.
  2. When we say a heart is "for" pumping blood, that is just a useful shorthand; nature itself has no purposes, only causes.
  3. Living things have real built-in goals and ends, not merely the ones humans project onto them.
  4. You cannot fully understand what a thing is without knowing what it is for; purpose is part of its nature.
  5. Evolution explains everything that looks designed in living things without any goal or intention being involved.
  6. Watching a spider rebuild its web the same way every time, it is hard to avoid the sense that it is genuinely aimed at something.

Toward Mechanistic (53)

Between the poles (1)

Toward Purposeful (101)

245 thinkers have no sourced position on this axis and are omitted rather than guessed.

Find your own positionAll 20 axes