Brief biography of Mark Ryland
President
& Senior Fellow, Institute for the Study of Nature.
Mark is a technologist, lawyer, amateur philosopher, and student of science. He
spearheaded the founding of the ISN in January 2007.
In the 1990s Mark became interested in the modern debate over evolution theory,
finding merit in critiques of the standard (reductive) understanding of
neo-Darwinism. This interest led him to collaboration with the Discovery
Institute, a center of gravity of both critics of neo-Darwinism and proponents
of "intelligent design theory." Eventually he grew tired of the narrow
perspectives and endless bickering that characterizes the modern debate about
the causes of evolution. Searching for a broader context, he began with the help
of various mentors to study the history of modern science, neo-Aristotelian
natural philosophy, and emergentism and non-reductionism in philosophy of
science.
As a result of that study he concluded that much of the modern debate over
evolution is a chimera of reductionism and mechanism in science, and
spirit-matter dualism in philosophy. He also discovered that there is a pressing
need for the development of an explicitly philosophical, classically informed,
and non-reductionist approach to nature, synthesizing the wisdom of the ancients
with the insights and capabilities of modern scientific ideas and methods. The
scholars who mentored him encouraged him to create a forum for a different, more
classically-influenced and yet cutting-edge approach to science issues, and
together they founded the ISN.ion from 1991 to 2000,
and at other technology companies from 2000 to 2003.
He is currently (2007-2008) the CTO of Mpower Media, a media-management
technology start-up in Reston, Virginia.
