Purposiveness : : Teleology Between Nature and Mind / / Luca Illetterati, Francesca Michelini.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter DGBA Philosophy 2000 - 2014
• TeilnehmendeR: Illetterati, Luca,; Michelini, Francesca,
• Place / Publishing House: Berlin ;, Boston : : De Gruyter, , [2013]; ©2008
• Year of Publication: 2013
• Language: German
• Physical Description: 1 online resource

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.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Table of Contents -- Introduction / Illetterati, Luca / Michelini, Francesca -- Back to the Roots. 'Functions' and 'Teleology' in the Philosophy of Leibniz / Nunziante, Antonio M. -- The organism concept: Kant's methodological turn / Šustar, Predrag -- Kant's Ontology of Organisms / Friebe, Cord -- Thinking Life. Hegel's Conceptualization of Living Being as an Autopoietic Theory of Organized Systems / Michelini, Francesca -- Unintelligent Purposes. Schopenhauer's Way over Kantian Teleology / De Cian, Nicoletta -- From the Self-preservation of the Individual to Regulation of the Species. Biopolitics and Teleology / Dini, Tristana -- Being-for. Purposes and Functions in Artefacts and Living Beings / Illetterati, Luca -- Teleology in Natural Organized Systems and in Artefacts. Interdependence of Processes versus External Design / Toepfer, Georg -- Beyond Teleology? / Costa, Paolo -- Naturalizing Teleology: Towards a Theory of Biological Subjects / Weber, Andreas / Varela, Francisco J. -- Contributors