AMONG THE GREEKS 59 



ing was not constructive in the way of advancing 

 explanations of natural phenomena ; it was sim- 

 ply destructive as regards teleology. He per- 

 ceived Design and admired the adaptations of 

 Nature, but left their origin unexplained. 



He had a gift for observing the purposeful di- 

 rection and the functions of bodily organs, and 

 was in every way inclined, one would think, to 

 explain these adaptations upon the principles of 

 his mechanical philosophy, for he stood far from 

 a teleological conception of Nature, yet he ad- 

 vanced no explanations. He denied that the uni- 

 verse was created or ordered by reason express- 

 ing itself in a purposive Design. He adopted the 

 older views as to the origin of animals and plants 

 directly from the terrestrial slime. His main indi- 

 rect contribution to the sub-structure of Evolu- 

 tion was his perception of the principle of the 

 adaptation of single structures and organs to cer- 

 tain purposes — an important step in advance, 

 for Empedocles' notion of adaptation extended 

 chiefly to organisms as a whole. 



Anaocagoras (500-428 b. c.) 



Anaxagoras took a further step. According to 

 Plato and Aristotle, this philosopher was the first 

 to attribute adaptations in Nature to intelligent 

 Design, and was thus the founder of the super- 



