Stephen J. Iacoboni

Stephen J. Iacoboni, MD, is an award-winning cancer researcher and has been a practitioner of medical oncology for forty years. In his personal memoir, The Undying Soul, he chronicled his spiritual journey and return to faith. In his latest book, Telos: The Scientific Basis for a Life of Purpose, he offers a unique reconciliation between faith and science. Please feel free to visit him at stepheniacoboni.com.

Archives

The Metaphysics of Irreducible Complexity

_{Stephen J. Iacoboni
January 30, 2025}

The vastness of life’s complexity is no longer unfathomable when seen through the light of purpose.

The Machine Model in Medicine

_{Stephen J. Iacoboni
November 7, 2024}

The unfortunate fact is, there really are those two conflicting sides in medicine.

A First Meeting with Jonathan Wells

_{Stephen J. Iacoboni
September 29, 2024}

When physicians express doubts about Darwin, we are quickly reminded of that famous remark of Theodosius Dobzhansky.

My Briar Patch: Notes of a Country Doctor

_{Stephen J. Iacoboni
September 26, 2024}

It took me about twenty years after medical school to break free of the intellectual "comfort" afforded by the mechanistic consensus.

Intentionality in Living Systems: What Does It Mean?

_{Stephen J. Iacoboni
August 28, 2024}

One historically dominant position on intentionality has been the Brentano thesis, proffered by 19th-century German philosopher and psychologist Franz Brentano.

Discerning the Shape of a “New Biology”

_{Stephen J. Iacoboni
August 12, 2024}

Purpose and intentionality permeate and in fact define the living state, in contrast to the inanimate.

Illuminating the Power of Life

_{Stephen J. Iacoboni
July 1, 2024}

That which is unique to life alone, which offers the only valid explanation of irreducible complexity, is the manifestation of goal-directed functional logic.

Powers Ontology: Overcoming the Limits of Reductionist Materialism

_{Stephen J. Iacoboni
May 15, 2024}

Reductionism is a method for understanding something by minimizing it to a very simple level that can be restricted to abstract language.

A Closer Look at Natural Law

_{Stephen J. Iacoboni
April 25, 2024}

The property of a keen sense of smell allows a polar bear to smell a seal miles away under the ice.

Is Natural Law Irreducible?

_{Stephen J. Iacoboni
April 2, 2024}

Perhaps the most fundamental distinction between naturalism and intelligent design is where each metaphysical framework draws the line at irreducibility.

From Jacques Monod, a Grim Message for Humanity

_{Stephen J. Iacoboni
March 12, 2024}

Biology was becoming a "real" science, melded with chemistry into the new discipline of biochemistry. At last life was reducible to molecular interactions.

A Darwinian Dilemma: The Paradox of Reproduction

_{Stephen J. Iacoboni
February 8, 2024}

Astonishingly, there is one unique organ system that actually detracts from the chances of survival of even the fittest individuals.

“All Things Are Ordered to Their End”

_{Stephen J. Iacoboni
January 15, 2024}

In that one simple phrase, St. Thomas Aquinas, the greatest Christian theologian of all time, echoed the fundamental teaching of Aristotle.

To Understand Nature’s Intentionality, We Must Go Back to the Future

_{Stephen J. Iacoboni
December 21, 2023}

It required the truly inimitable intellect of Aquinas to Christianize and modernize what Aristotle had said 1,600 years before him.

How to Overcome Scientism

_{Stephen J. Iacoboni
December 4, 2023}

Descartes is one of the founding fathers of Western science. And the conversion from medieval scholasticism to Cartesian dualism propelled science dramatically.

Understanding the Limits of Scientism

_{Stephen J. Iacoboni
November 1, 2023}

The great impasse in empirical science was reached early in the 20th century when quantum mechanics was first being developed.

Life Without Purpose — The Fundamental Flaw

_{Stephen J. Iacoboni
September 28, 2023}

The fundamental flaw in the conventional approach to understanding life is that we think we can fully understand the whole by looking at the individual parts.

Emergence by Design

_{Stephen J. Iacoboni
August 30, 2023}

The originators of the concept were two 19th-century British philosopher-scientists, John Stuart Mill and George Henry Lewes.

Something Is Missing from the Materialist Framework

_{Stephen J. Iacoboni
July 17, 2023}

Scientists have learned over the centuries that when a fundamental theoretical impasse is encountered, we do not blame nature.

Replacing Chemistry with Purpose

_{Stephen J. Iacoboni
June 20, 2023}

The core argument of neo-Darwinism is, simply, that evolution, and life on Earth, are the result of random, aka, purposeless chemical reactions.