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The Role of Teleonomy in Evolution

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2022

Grace A. De Laguna
Grace A. De Laguna*
Affiliation:
Bryn Mawr College
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Abstract

The papers presented at the Chicago Darwin Centennial suggest a fresh approach to the philosophical problem of ends in nature. In order to avoid the implications of “teleology,” assumed to refer only to the process of evolution as directed towards goals, the discussants use “teleonomy” in reference to the biological organism as end-directed (for reproduction). They accept “teleonomy” only as descriptive, and neglect its significance for theory.

The present thesis is that each of the three recognized phases of universal evolution: inorganic, organic, and post-organic initiated by the advent of man and his culture, is characterized and made possible by the emergence of a distinctive type of teleonomic organization. While the process of evolutionary change is not itself end-directed to any goal, the end-directed structures which arise are not only “in nature” but are themselves crucial factors in evolution, since it is on them that natural selection operates. By using the concept of teleonomy, it is argued, one can avoid the issue of “mechanism” versus “teleology.”

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 29 , Issue 2 , April 1962 , pp. 117 - 131
Copyright
Copyright © Philosophy of Science Association 1962

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References

1 The celebration of the Darwin Centennial was held at the University of Chicago in November, 1959. The papers presented, edited by Sol Tax, were published in three volumes under the general title, Evolution After Darwin, by the University of Chicago Press in 1960: Volume I, The Evolution of Life; Volume II, The Evolution of Man; Volume III, Issues in Evolution, (edited by Sol Tax and Charles Callender).

Unless otherwise noted, all bibliographic references are to this publication.

2 Sir Julian Huxley, “The Emergence of Darwinism,” Vol. I, p. 18.

3 George Gaylord Simpson, “The History of Life,” Vol. I, p. 175.

4 op. cit., p. 175, note.

5 Colin S. Pittendrigh, “Adaptation, natural selection and behavior,” Behavior and Evolution, edited by Anne Roe and George Gaylord Simpson, Yale University Press, 1958, p. 394.

6 ibid., p. 394.

7 Norwood Russell Hanson, Patterns of Discovery, Cambridge University Press, 1958.

8 Colin S. Pittendrigh, op. cit., p. 398.

9 Hans Gaffron, “The Origin of Life,” Vol. I, p. 64.

10 ibid., p. 69.

11 Sir Julian Huxley, “Social and Cultural Evolution,” Panel Five, Vol. III, p. 213.

12 Hermann J. Muller, “The Guidance of Human Evolution,” Vol. II, pp. 423–462.

13 Alfred L. Kroeber, “Evolution, History, and Culture,” Vol. II, pp. 1–16.

14 A. Irving Hallowell, “Self, Society, and Culture in Phylogenetic Perspective,” Vol. II, p. 316.

15 This expression is borrowed from José Ferrater Mora who uses it in The Idea of Man, The Lindley Lecture delivered at the University of Kansas and published by this University in 1961.