Your complimentary articles

You’ve read all of your complimentary articles for this month. To have complete access to the thousands of philosophy articles on this site, please

SUBSCRIBE NOW

If you are a subscriber please sign in to your account.

To buy or renew a subscription please visit Subscriptions.

If you are a print subscriber you can contact us to create an online account.

Articles

Teleology Rises from the Grave

Stephen Asma says biology needs to understand the purpose – the ‘telos’ – of organisms and systems.

In 1790, in his Critique of Judgment, Immanuel Kant famously predicted that there would never be a “Newton for a blade of grass.” Biology, he thought, would never be unified and reduced down to a handful of mechanical laws, as in the case of physics. This, he argued, is because we cannot expunge teleology (goal-directedness), that is, the idea of purpose, from living systems. The question ‘What is it for?’ applies to living structures in a way that has no counterpart in physics.

Most Anglo-American philosophers, historians of science, and theologians have completely misunderstood his argument.

…