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About one hundred years ago, biologist* D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson
(On Growth and Form) wrote, “Everything is what it is because it got that way.” This seems to me the perfect exposition of the scientific, rationalist philosophy.
Now, I’m thinking that he deliberately used naive language to stress the fundamental and indisputable nature of the observation. I wonder if anyone will agree with me. (Always up for new experiences!)

* Amended: British mathematician, biologist, zoologist, university teacher, classical scholar and poet

I'll bite: while the statement is true to a point, it does miss the why of the 'got that way'. In other words, there's no cause for the because.

I think is an amusingly simple way to say that everything develops.

I'll bite: while the statement is true to a point, it does miss the why of the 'got that way'. In other words, there's no cause for the because.

Ah, but science does not concern itself with ‘why’. Only the humble, but endlessly fascinating, ‘how’. Though many practitioners are believers, science per se does not admit of intent.

I didn't mean the intent version of why, rather the how come version. Why did X happen? What caused it?

I didn't mean the intent version of why, rather the how come version. Why did X happen? What caused it?

I get it. That’s how I interpret ‘why’. Maybe that’s an idiosyncrasy. Anyhoo, I think it’s accurate to say science always looks for the next-proximate cause. There being, in my view, and that of most scientists, no consciousness, ultimately. There are the laws of physics (those in this universe, anyway). And biological evolution. (Bless its vexatious little heart.)