Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book shows that teleology lay behind the changes to masonic ritual introduced around 1720, the scientific and other lectures given in lodges in the 1720s and 1730s and in the development of European freemasonry and Swedish Rite. It discusses Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution and its teleological implications. The book examines the teleology of eighteenth-century freemasonry whose thought was based on Enlightenment principles and Newtonian science. It focuses on an evolutionary account of morality. The book also focuses on the fact that humans have a tendency to reason teleologically. This tendency is more pronounced under time pressure, in people with little formal schooling and in patients with Alzheimer’s. The book clarifies and defends David Hume’s rejection of teleology.