Thomas Nagel's Book Mind and Cosmos

Philosopher Thomas Nagel’s book Mind and Cosmos was dubbed the "most despised science book of 2012" for arguing that materialist neo-Darwinism is "almost certainly false". Critics slammed his doubts about evolutionary mechanisms and his proposal that the universe has an inherent, teleological bias toward producing conscious, rational life. Evolutionary psychologist Steven Pinker called it the “shoddy reasoning of a once-great thinker." Biologist Jerry Coyne claimed the book was poorly argued and "an instrument of mischief" designed to fuel creationists and intelligent-design proponents. Philosopher Daniel Dennett strongly criticized the book for misunderstanding evolutionary biology and relying on outdated science.

However, Nagel does not reject evolution. He is merely skeptical that life developed by chance alone. He does not argue for intelligent design, but does give credit to proponents of intelligent design for pointing out problems with strict materialist Darwinism. While his three arguments against pure materialism (consciousness, moral value, and cognition) are often used to defend intelligent design, Nagel remains an atheist. He is only advocating adjustments to the materialist neo-Darwinian conception of nature.

He thinks the notion of teleology should return to our conception of nature, completely untethered to theism. The death of God does not mean the death of teleology. He argues for something he calls Natural Teleology, a non-emergent purpose that exists without God. Nagel believes there is a “propensity” in nature for life to arise. Since he doesn’t see such a propensity anywhere in physics, he thinks the conventional view by itself fails as an explanation. The standard scientific picture could be augmented by a yet undiscovered notion of teleology, neither mental nor physical.