Vital Forces, Teleology and Organization

Vital Forces, Teleology and Organization
Title Vital Forces, Teleology and Organization PDF eBook
Author Andrea Gambarotto
Publisher Springer
Pages 137
Release 2017-10-03
Genre Philosophy
ISBN 3319654152

Download Vital Forces, Teleology and Organization Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

This book offers a comprehensive account of vitalism and the Romantic philosophy of nature. The author explores the rise of biology as a unified science in Germany by reconstructing the history of the notion of “vital force,” starting from the mid-eighteenth through the early nineteenth century. Further, he argues that Romantic Naturphilosophie played a crucial role in the rise of biology in Germany, especially thanks to its treatment of teleology. In fact, both post-Kantian philosophers and naturalists were guided by teleological principles in defining the object of biological research. The book begins by considering the problem of generation, focusing on the debate over the notion of “formative force.” Readers are invited to engage with the epistemological status of this formative force, i.e. the question of the principle behind organization. The second chapter provides a reconstruction of the physiology of vital forces as it was elaborated in the mid- to late-eighteenth century by the group of physicians and naturalists known as the “Göttingen School.” Readers are shown how these authors developed an understanding of the animal kingdom as a graded series of organisms with increasing functional complexity. Chapter three tracks the development of such framework in Romantic Naturphilosophie. The author introduces the reader to the problem of classification, showing how Romantic philosophers of nature regarded classification as articulated by a unified plan that connects all living forms with one another, relying on the idea of living nature as a universal organism. In the closing chapter, this analysis shows how the three instances of pre-biological discourse on living beings – theory of generation, physiology and natural history – converged to form the consolidated disciplinary matrix of a general biology. The book offers an insightful read for all scholars interested in classical German philosophy, especially those researching the philosophy of nature, as well as the history and philosophy of biology.

Aristotle on Teleology

Aristotle on Teleology
Title Aristotle on Teleology PDF eBook
Author Monte Ransome Johnson
Publisher Clarendon Press
Pages 352
Release 2005-11-03
Genre Philosophy
ISBN 0191536504

Download Aristotle on Teleology Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

Monte Johnson examines one of the most controversial aspects of Aristiotle's natural philosophy: his teleology. Is teleology about causation or explanation? Does it exclude or obviate mechanism, determinism, or materialism? Is it focused on the good of individual organisms, or is god or man the ultimate end of all processes and entities? Is teleology restricted to living things, or does it apply to the cosmos as a whole? Does it identify objectively existent causes in the world, or is it merely a heuristic for our understanding of other causal processes? Johnson argues that Aristotle's aporetic approach drives a middle course between these traditional oppositions, and avoids the dilemma, frequently urged against teleology, between backwards causation and anthropomorphism. Although these issues have been debated with extraordinary depth by Aristotle scholars, and touched upon by many in the wider philosophical and scientific community as well, there has been no comprehensive historical treatment of the issue. Aristotle is commonly considered the inventor of teleology, although the precise term originated in the eighteenth century. But if teleology means the use of ends and goals in natural science, then Aristotle was rather a critical innovator of teleological explanation. Teleological notions were widespread among his predecessors, but Aristotle rejected their conception of extrinsic causes such as mind or god as the primary causes for natural things. Aristotle's radical alternative was to assert nature itself as an internal principle of change and an end, and his teleological explanations focus on the intrinsic ends of natural substances - those ends that benefit the natural thing itself. Aristotle's use of ends was subsequently conflated with incompatible 'teleological' notions, including proofs for the existence of a providential or designer god, vitalism and animism, opposition to mechanism and non-teleological causation, and anthropocentrism. Johnson addresses these misconceptions through an elaboration of Aristotle's methodological statements, as well as an examination of the explanations actually offered in the scientific works.

Explanation and Teleology in Aristotle's Science of Nature

Explanation and Teleology in Aristotle's Science of Nature
Title Explanation and Teleology in Aristotle's Science of Nature PDF eBook
Author Mariska Leunissen
Publisher Cambridge University Press
Pages
Release 2010-08-26
Genre Philosophy
ISBN 1139490419

Download Explanation and Teleology in Aristotle's Science of Nature Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

In Aristotle's teleological view of the world, natural things come to be and are present for the sake of some function or end (for example, wings are present in birds for the sake of flying). Whereas much of recent scholarship has focused on uncovering the (meta-)physical underpinnings of Aristotle's teleology and its contrasts with his notions of chance and necessity, this book examines Aristotle's use of the theory of natural teleology in producing explanations of natural phenomena. Close analyses of Aristotle's natural treatises and his Posterior Analytics show what methods are used for the discovery of functions or ends that figure in teleological explanations, how these explanations are structured, and how well they work in making sense of phenomena. The book will be valuable for all who are interested in Aristotle's natural science, his philosophy of science, and his biology.

Purposiveness

Purposiveness
Title Purposiveness PDF eBook
Author Luca Illetterati
Publisher Walter de Gruyter
Pages 229
Release 2013-05-02
Genre Philosophy
ISBN 3110321246

Download Purposiveness Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

Since the rise of modern thought and natural science, teleological discourses have been banished as explanatory tools in natural investigations. The various contributions to this volume embrace the task of rethinking natural purposiveness in accordance with natural science. They set out from the issue of whether, and in which form, it is possible to talk of purposes in nature, without resorting to an account requesting some intentional agent. The legitimacy of such a notion as that of internal teleology has been addressed, together with the issue of what the term "internal" properly denotes. It is meant to be an alternative both to the position of those who assume that teleology in biology requires a dimension transcending nature itself and find in teleological language an argument for the Intelligent Designer, and to the stance of those who aim to eliminate teleology from scientific inquiry altogether.

Teleology and the Norms of Nature

Teleology and the Norms of Nature
Title Teleology and the Norms of Nature PDF eBook
Author William J. FitzPatrick
Publisher Routledge
Pages 410
Release 2017-09-25
Genre Philosophy
ISBN 1136712674

Download Teleology and the Norms of Nature Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

This work is an examination of teleological attributions i.e. ascriptions of proper functions and natural ends) to the features and behavior of living things with a view to understanding their application to human life.

Teleology, First Principles, and Scientific Method in Aristotle's Biology

Teleology, First Principles, and Scientific Method in Aristotle's Biology
Title Teleology, First Principles, and Scientific Method in Aristotle's Biology PDF eBook
Author Allan Gotthelf
Publisher Oxford University Press
Pages 464
Release 2012-02-23
Genre Philosophy
ISBN 0191629162

Download Teleology, First Principles, and Scientific Method in Aristotle's Biology Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

This volume presents an interconnected set of sixteen essays, four of which are previously unpublished, by Allan Gotthelf—one of the leading experts in the study of Aristotle's biological writings. Gotthelf addresses three main topics across Aristotle's three main biological treatises. Starting with his own ground-breaking study of Aristotle's natural teleology and its illuminating relationship with the Generation of Animals, Gotthelf proceeds to the axiomatic structure of biological explanation (and the first principles such explanation proceeds from) in the Parts of Animals. After an exploration of the implications of these two treatises for our understanding of Aristotle's metaphysics, Gotthelf examines important aspects of the method by which Aristotle organizes his data in the History of Animals to make possible such a systematic, explanatory study of animals, offering a new view of the place of classification in that enterprise. In a concluding section on 'Aristotle as Theoretical Biologist', Gotthelf explores the basis of Charles Darwin's great praise of Aristotle and, in the first printing of a lecture delivered worldwide, provides an overview of Aristotle as a philosophically-oriented scientist, and 'a proper verdict' on his greatness as scientist.

Complexity and the Function of Mind in Nature

Complexity and the Function of Mind in Nature
Title Complexity and the Function of Mind in Nature PDF eBook
Author Peter Godfrey-Smith
Publisher Cambridge University Press
Pages 332
Release 1998-09-28
Genre Philosophy
ISBN 9780521646246

Download Complexity and the Function of Mind in Nature Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

This book explains the relationship between intelligence and environmental complexity, and in so doing links philosophy of mind to more general issues about the relations between organisms and environments, and to the general pattern of 'externalist' explanations. The author provides a biological approach to the investigation of mind and cognition in nature. In particular he explores the idea that the function of cognition is to enable agents to deal with environmental complexity. The history of the idea in the work of Dewey and Spencer is considered, as is the impact of recent evolutionary theory on our understanding of the place of mind in nature.