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External Teleology and Functionalism: Hegel, Life Science and the Organism–Environment Relation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 September 2020

Maximilian Scholz
Maximilian Scholz*
Affiliation:
Munich School of Philosophy, [email protected]
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Abstract

In the chapter on Observing Reason in the Phenomenology, as well as in §368 of the Philosophy of Nature, Hegel deals with the life sciences of his time. There, he labels the methodology of its representatives, namely zoology and comparative anatomy, as external teleology. In this paper I want to show that by doing so he is actually discussing a general kind of functionalism. Thereby, I want to highlight a line of thought in Hegel's texts which represents a productive reading of external teleology contrary to a destructive reading on which scholars have mainly focussed.

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Articles
Information
Hegel Bulletin , Volume 41 , Special Issue 3: Hegel and the Philosophy of Biology , December 2020 , pp. 371 - 388
Copyright
Copyright © The Hegel Society of Great Britain, 2020

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