THE MULTIPLE MEANINGS OF TELEOLOGICAL
TELEOLOGICAL language is frequently used in biology in order to make statements about the functions of organs, about physiological processes, and about the behavior and actions of species and individuals. Such language is characterized by the use of the words function, purpose, and goal, as well as by statements that something exists or is done in order to. Typical statements of this sort are: "One of the functions of the kidneys is to eliminate the end products of protein metabolism," or "Birds migrate to warm climates in order to escape the low temperatures and food shortages of winter." In spite of the long-standing misgivings of physical scientists, philosophers, and logicians, many biologists have continued to insist not only that such teleological statements are objective and free of metaphysical content, but also that they express something important which is lost when teleological language is eliminated from such statements. Recent reviews of the problem in the philosophical literature (Nagel 1961; Beckner 1969; Hull 1973; to cite only a few of a large selection of such publications) concede the legitimacy of some teleological statements but still display considerable divergence of opinion as to the actual meaning of the word teleological and the relations between teleology and causality.
This confusion is nothing new and goes back at least as far as Aristotle, who invoked final causes not only for individual life processes (such as development from the egg to the adult) but also for the universe as a whole. To him, as a biologist, the form-giving of the specific life process was the primary paradigm of a finalistic process, but for his epigones the order of the universe and the trend toward its perfection became completely dominant. The existence of a form-giving, finalistic principle in the universe was rightly rejected by Bacon and Descartes, but this, they thought, necessitated the eradication of any and all teleological language, even for biological processes, such as growth and behavior, or in the discussion of adaptive structures.
The history of the biological sciences from the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries is characterized by a constant battle between extreme mechanists, who explained everything purely in terms of movements and forces, and their opponents, who often went to the opposite extreme of vitalism. After vitalism had been completely routed by the beginning of the twentieth century, biologists could afford to be less self-conscious in their language and, as Pittendrigh (1958) has expressed it, were again willing to say "A turtle came ashore to lay her eggs," instead of saying "She came ashore and laid her eggs." There is now complete consensus among biologists that the teleological phrasing of such a statement does not imply any conflict with physicochemical causality.
...
+++++
NOTA IMPERTINENTE DESTE BLOGGER:
O biólogo ao considerar as formas bióticas e descrevê-las não escapa da linguagem teleológica. Caracas, mano, são mais de 150 anos e Darwin, o homem que teve a maior ideia que toda a humanidade já teve, e que é tido como quem alijou a teleologia da biologia de uma vez por todas, vê que seus discípulos não conseguem escapar desta linguagem porque detectada nas formas bióticas?
Ué, mas o design não é ilusão, aparência??? É, a teleologia é uma amante que o biólogo usa somente à noite, mas tem vergonha de sair com ela à luz do dia... Quem disse isso mesmo? Gente, eu acho que vocês são telepatas: J. S. B. Haldane, o biólogo evolucionista, ateu e marxista.
+++++
