Teleonomy
Encyclopedia
Teleonomy is the quality of apparent purposefulness and of goal-directedness of structures and functions in living organisms that derive from their evolutionary history, adaptation for reproductive success, or generally, due to the operation of a program.
The term was coined to stand in contrast with teleology
, which applies to ends that are planned by an agent which can internally model/imagine various alternative futures, which enables intention
, purpose and foresight
. A teleonomic process, such as evolution
, produces complex products without the benefit of such a guiding foresight.
Evolution largely hoards hindsight, as variations unwittingly make "predictions" about structures and functions which could successfully cope with the future, and participate in an audition which culls the also-rans, leaving winners for the next generation. Information accumulates about functions and structures that are successful, exploiting feedback
from the environment via the selection of fitter coalitions of structures and functions. These features also have been described by Robert Rosen as an anticipatory system which builds an internal model based on past and possible futures states. Teleonomy is related to programmatic or computational aspects of purpose. Richard Dawkins has also described the properties of "archeo-purpose" and "neo-purpose" in his talk on the "purpose of purpose." In the later part of his working with a theory of social evolution
and a related theory of world-history, Talcott Parsons
adopted the concept of teleonomy as the fundamental organizing principle for directional processes and his theory of societal development in general. In this way, Parsons tried to find a theoretical compromise between voluntarism
as a principle of action and the idea of a certain directionality in history.
applied the term to biology:
`
In 1962, Grace A. de Laguna's "The Role of Teleonomy in Evolution" fleshed the applicability of the term to biological history and adaptation.
In 1965 Ernst Mayr
cited Pittendrigh and criticized the last few words cited above for not making a “clear distinction between the two teleologies of Aristotle”; evolution involves Aristotle's material causes and formal causes rather than efficient causes. Mayr adopted Pittendrigh’s term, but supplied his own definition:
In 1966 George C. Williams
approved of the term in the last chapter of his Adaptation and Natural Selection; a critique of some current evolutionary thought. In 1970, Jacques Monod
, in Chance and Necessity
, an Essay on the Natural Philosophy of Modern Biology, suggested teleonomy as a key feature that defines life:
In 1974 Ernst Mayr illustrated the difference in the statements:
"The Wood Thrush migrates in the fall in order to escape the inclemency of the weather and the food shortages of the northern climates."
"The Wood Thrush migrates in the fall and thereby escapes the inclemency of the weather and the food shortages of the northern climates."
Subsequently philosophers like Ernest Nagel
further analysed the concept of goal-directedness in biology and by 1982, philosopher and historian of science David Hull
joked about the use of teleology and teleonomy by biologists:
Although Aristotle believed the world as a whole has a purpose and is teleologically guided, his ancient closing argument could be taken as a statement about teleonomy given modern understanding of adaptation and feedback as "nature's craft":
, complexity theory
and self-organizing systems. It has extended beneath biology to be applied in the context of chemistry. Some philosophers of biology resist the term and still employ "teleology" when analyzing biological function and the language used to describe it. while others endorse it.
The term was coined to stand in contrast with teleology
Teleology
A teleology is any philosophical account which holds that final causes exist in nature, meaning that design and purpose analogous to that found in human actions are inherent also in the rest of nature. The word comes from the Greek τέλος, telos; root: τελε-, "end, purpose...
, which applies to ends that are planned by an agent which can internally model/imagine various alternative futures, which enables intention
Intention
Intention is an agent's specific purpose in performing an action or series of actions, the end or goal that is aimed at. Outcomes that are unanticipated or unforeseen are known as unintended consequences....
, purpose and foresight
Foresight
Foresight or forethought may refer to:* Foresight , ability to predict or plan for the future* Foresight , management planning principle* Foresight , European planning mechanism for public policy...
. A teleonomic process, such as evolution
Evolution
Evolution is any change across successive generations in the heritable characteristics of biological populations. Evolutionary processes give rise to diversity at every level of biological organisation, including species, individual organisms and molecules such as DNA and proteins.Life on Earth...
, produces complex products without the benefit of such a guiding foresight.
Evolution largely hoards hindsight, as variations unwittingly make "predictions" about structures and functions which could successfully cope with the future, and participate in an audition which culls the also-rans, leaving winners for the next generation. Information accumulates about functions and structures that are successful, exploiting feedback
Feedback
Feedback describes the situation when output from an event or phenomenon in the past will influence an occurrence or occurrences of the same Feedback describes the situation when output from (or information about the result of) an event or phenomenon in the past will influence an occurrence or...
from the environment via the selection of fitter coalitions of structures and functions. These features also have been described by Robert Rosen as an anticipatory system which builds an internal model based on past and possible futures states. Teleonomy is related to programmatic or computational aspects of purpose. Richard Dawkins has also described the properties of "archeo-purpose" and "neo-purpose" in his talk on the "purpose of purpose." In the later part of his working with a theory of social evolution
Social evolution
Social evolution is a subdiscipline of evolutionary biology that is concerned with social behaviors that have fitness consequences for individuals other than the actor...
and a related theory of world-history, Talcott Parsons
Talcott Parsons
Talcott Parsons was an American sociologist who served on the faculty of Harvard University from 1927 to 1973....
adopted the concept of teleonomy as the fundamental organizing principle for directional processes and his theory of societal development in general. In this way, Parsons tried to find a theoretical compromise between voluntarism
Voluntarism
Voluntarism is a descriptive term for a school of thought that regards the will as superior to the intellect and to emotion. This description has been applied to various points of view, from different cultural eras, in the areas of metaphysics, psychology, sociology, and theology.The term...
as a principle of action and the idea of a certain directionality in history.
History
In 1958, Colin PittendrighColin Pittendrigh
Colin Pittendrigh was a US-American biologist of English parentage. He is a co-founder of modern chronobiology along with Jürgen Aschoff and Erwin Bünning.-Life:...
applied the term to biology:
`
In 1962, Grace A. de Laguna's "The Role of Teleonomy in Evolution" fleshed the applicability of the term to biological history and adaptation.
In 1965 Ernst Mayr
Ernst Mayr
Ernst Walter Mayr was one of the 20th century's leading evolutionary biologists. He was also a renowned taxonomist, tropical explorer, ornithologist, historian of science, and naturalist...
cited Pittendrigh and criticized the last few words cited above for not making a “clear distinction between the two teleologies of Aristotle”; evolution involves Aristotle's material causes and formal causes rather than efficient causes. Mayr adopted Pittendrigh’s term, but supplied his own definition:
In 1966 George C. Williams
George C. Williams
Professor George Christopher Williams was an American evolutionary biologist.Williams was a professor emeritus of biology at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. He was best known for his vigorous critique of group selection. The work of Williams in this area, along with W. D...
approved of the term in the last chapter of his Adaptation and Natural Selection; a critique of some current evolutionary thought. In 1970, Jacques Monod
Jacques Monod
Jacques Lucien Monod was a French biologist who was awarded a Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1965, sharing it with François Jacob and Andre Lwoff "for their discoveries concerning genetic control of enzyme and virus synthesis"...
, in Chance and Necessity
Chance and Necessity
Chance and Necessity is a 1970 book by Jacques Monod, interpreting the processes of evolution to show that life is only the result of natural processes by "pure chance". It has been described as a "manifesto of materialist biology in the most reductivist sense"...
, an Essay on the Natural Philosophy of Modern Biology, suggested teleonomy as a key feature that defines life:
In 1974 Ernst Mayr illustrated the difference in the statements:
"The Wood Thrush migrates in the fall in order to escape the inclemency of the weather and the food shortages of the northern climates."
"The Wood Thrush migrates in the fall and thereby escapes the inclemency of the weather and the food shortages of the northern climates."
Subsequently philosophers like Ernest Nagel
Ernest Nagel
Ernest Nagel was a Czech-American philosopher of science. Along with Rudolf Carnap, Hans Reichenbach, and Carl Hempel, he is sometimes seen as one of the major figures of the logical positivist movement....
further analysed the concept of goal-directedness in biology and by 1982, philosopher and historian of science David Hull
David Hull
David Lee Hull was a philosopher with a particular interest in the philosophy of biology. In addition to his academic prominence, he was well-known as a gay man who fought for the rights of other gay and lesbian philosophers....
joked about the use of teleology and teleonomy by biologists:
Although Aristotle believed the world as a whole has a purpose and is teleologically guided, his ancient closing argument could be taken as a statement about teleonomy given modern understanding of adaptation and feedback as "nature's craft":
Philosophy
In teleology, Kant's positions were neglected for many years because in the minds of many scientists they were associated with vitalist views of evolution. Their gradual rehabilitation recently is evident in teleonomy which bears a number of features, such as the description of organisms, that are reminiscent of the Kantian conception of final causes as essentially recursive in nature. The gist of Kant's position is that even though we cannot know whether there are final causes in nature, we are constrained by the peculiar nature of the human understanding to view organisms teleologically. Thus the Kantian view sees teleology as a necessary principle for the study of organisms, but only as a regulative principle, and with no ontological implications.Current status
Teleonomy is closely related to concepts of emergenceEmergence
In philosophy, systems theory, science, and art, emergence is the way complex systems and patterns arise out of a multiplicity of relatively simple interactions. Emergence is central to the theories of integrative levels and of complex systems....
, complexity theory
Complex systems
Complex systems present problems in mathematical modelling.The equations from which complex system models are developed generally derive from statistical physics, information theory and non-linear dynamics, and represent organized but unpredictable behaviors of systems of nature that are considered...
and self-organizing systems. It has extended beneath biology to be applied in the context of chemistry. Some philosophers of biology resist the term and still employ "teleology" when analyzing biological function and the language used to describe it. while others endorse it.
See also
- Autopoiesis
- Chance and NecessityChance and NecessityChance and Necessity is a 1970 book by Jacques Monod, interpreting the processes of evolution to show that life is only the result of natural processes by "pure chance". It has been described as a "manifesto of materialist biology in the most reductivist sense"...
- Naturalism (philosophy)Naturalism (philosophy)Naturalism commonly refers to the philosophical viewpoint that the natural universe and its natural laws and forces operate in the universe, and that nothing exists beyond the natural universe or, if it does, it does not affect the natural universe that we know...
- OrthogenesisOrthogenesisOrthogenesis, orthogenetic evolution, progressive evolution or autogenesis, is the hypothesis that life has an innate tendency to evolve in a unilinear fashion due to some internal or external "driving force". The hypothesis is based on essentialism and cosmic teleology and proposes an intrinsic...
- PolytelyPolytelyPolytely can be described as frequently, complex problem-solving situations characterized by the presence of not one, but several goals, endings.Modern societies face an increasing incidence of various complex problems...
- Telic Recursion
- T-symmetryT-symmetryT Symmetry is the symmetry of physical laws under a time reversal transformation: T: t \mapsto -t.Although in restricted contexts one may find this symmetry, the observable universe itself does not show symmetry under time reversal, primarily due to the second law of thermodynamics.Time asymmetries...
Further reading
- Allen, C., M. Bekoff, G. Lauder, eds., Nature’s Purposes: Analyses Of Function and Design in Biology. MIT Press, 1998. (ISBN 0-2625-1097-9)
- Mayr, E., The Growth of Biological Thought. Diversity, Evolution, and Inheritance. Cambridge (MA): Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1982 : pp. 47-51 (differentiating four kinds of teleology).
- Mayr, E., What Makes Biology Unique?: Considerations on the Autonomy of a Scientific Discipline, Cambridge University Press, 2004. (ISBN 0-5218-4114-3).
- Ruse, M. Darwin and Design, Harvard University Press; 2004. (ISBN 0-6740-1631-9)