Teleology
Teleology ( altgr. τέλος telos, purpose, aim, end ', and λόγος lógos ' doctrine' ) is the doctrine that actions or at all development processes are guided by the purposes and run consistently appropriate. The term has a long history, which was expressed but only introduced by the German philosopher Christian Wolff in his Philosophia rationalis, sive logica (1728).
General
The teleology as a worldview based on the assumption of either external ( transcendent ) or internal ( intrinsic ) final causes.
- After the transcendent conception ( Anaxagoras, Heraclitus ) the appropriate order of the world through the work of a suitable eluting world power ( nous, logos ) is produced; in Plato by the other-worldly ideas; in Christian theology by God or divine providence.
- The immanent teleology ( Aristotle ) laid the final cause in the things themselves, which represents the pursuit of a certain goal states is attributed.
The dualistic view is teleology and causality as one is mutually exclusive contrast against.
Monistic positions, however, consider both as complementary aspects which are not contrary to each other, but are compatible with each other as different modes of apprehension of the same events in a higher synthesis.
Is set strictly anti - teleological mechanistic worldview ( Lucretius, Hobbes, Descartes, Spinoza ).
The constitutive role which teleology in these approaches, a heuristic exclusively use ( " regulatory " in a sense) can be compared. So in the modern science of teleology analogous processes are studied teleonomy under the name.
History of Philosophy
"Nothing happens by chance, but everything for a reason and by necessity. "
This phrase, attributed to Leucippus, according to tradition, has decided any teleology back, because under " reason " (logos) is nothing to understand other than the mathematical- mechanical law, which follow the atoms in their movement with absolute necessity.
The total teleology rooted in theology: that God as architect of the worlds shall proceed, that man must call his method useful in analogy to human use of reason. Aristotle takes this view substantially. While it refers to predecessors such as the Ionians, Empedocles, Anaxagoras, Socrates and Plato, he sees himself but himself as the founder of a special purpose doctrine.
Aristotle presents as the principle purpose for the first time: The nature and cause of each thing is the resting in him purpose. He was raised in pronounced contrast to the mechanical world view of Democritus, which he blames, because they let the final causes in mind and everything leads back to the need. The doctrine of an " immanent " purpose captures the idea of a corresponding to the human ideal expediency, although by a other-worldly personal God is abandoned in favor of pantheism.
Aristotelianism knows next to the relevant teleology final cause ( Zweck-/Finalursache ) three kinds of causes, namely, the efficient cause ( efficient cause ), the material cause ( material cause) and the causa formalis ( formal cause ). Also processes within nature about goals and goal states tried to explain - With the final cause are - similar to human actions. A combination of efficient cause and final cause can occur in teleological explanations.
The Christian Middle Ages comes to the completely new idea that also the timing of the events of human life have a purposeful total sense. About the teleology of nature that elevates the story.
Open and sharp Spinoza turns against the anthropomorphism of teleology. It is absurd to speak of the purpose of the Godhead and even by those who refer to humans. Since all follow with eternal necessity from the nature of the Godhead, is no room for a purposeful activity. The explanation of the nature of things by the will of God appears to him as an asylum ignorantiae for the naturalist.
Francis Bacon as sharp polemic against Aristotle, but what is actually new, which had brought the experimental approach of Copernicus, Kepler and Galileo, he did not quite understand. Because Bacon keeps the essential features of the Aristotelian approach erect, namely the morphology and teleology without epistemologically deal with them.
Immanuel Kant rejects in his Critique of Judgment, the assumption of purposeful processes in nature. For him, the teleological description of organisms is merely a tool of reason, which we indeed need to take adequate description, but the zukomme no objective truth. For the natural sciences could teleology never be anything other than a heuristic principle an "objective". Because it will not explain anything by it, the science -rich once and for all only as far as the mechanical- causal explanation of things. When Kant believes in the organisms that statement way will never be sufficient completely, so he does not claim that the mechanical explanation of nature could come across a solid barrier somewhere, beyond which the teleological must occur.
Rather, Kant considers only the mechanical explanation of organisms as an infinitely extending process, in which always remain an unresolved residue, similar to the mechanical explanation of the universe. All parts are determined by the idea of the whole. This thesis derives the concept of objective purposiveness over to the body: " An organized product of nature is that in which is all purpose and reciprocally also means. " Kant's account of teleology can be up today as a starting point for the "Philosophy of biology "are made .
Hegel welcomed the restoration of the Aristotelian idea of immanent purpose. Ludwig Feuerbach, however, is in contrast to and reflected fully on the side of Democritus. The inclusion of teleology pity physics only. " Teleology is barren and gives birth to nothing, like a consecrated virgin. "
Friedrich Engels ridiculed " the flat Wolffian teleology according to which the cats were created to eat the mice, the mice to be eaten by the cats, and the whole of nature in order to demonstrate the wisdom of the Creator. It served the former philosophy to the highest honor that they would not be misled by the limited state of contemporary natural knowledge, that they - from Spinoza to the great French materialists - insisted on explaining the world from itself, and the natural science of future justification left in detail. " Wolff's empirical teleology ( From the Endabsichten of natural things ) incentives the funny bone by their petty-bourgeois point of view. Engels rejects the allegation of intentional actions in nature as pantheism or deism and insists on causal explanation that it represents also Darwin's theory of evolution.
In the philosophy of science
Science theorists such as Hempel, Oppenheim or Stegmüller see the ultimate goal of empirical science in causal explanations. For Hans Albert there in empirical science in general only a single method of explanation, according to which he refused a methodological separation - approximately on the axis vs. nomothetic. idiographic - of " spiritual science " and " science " as unfounded.
This is, however, for Karl Popper no argument against teleology: teleological explanations are contrary to the natural sciences possible as well as in the humanities. He represented about a teleological point of view with regard to the origin of species.
Stegmüller emphasized that the terms " teleological " and are " causal" not intended to be mutually exclusive concepts; a focus on causal explanations do not rule out tele logical explanations. But because ultimately had any real teleological explanation, this includes, for example, the explanation of the behavior of a person with reference to its objectives and aspirations, is also always a true causal explanation.
From the genuine teleological explanation Stegmüller distinguishes the seemingly genuine teleological explanation, which is, for example, to explain a natural phenomenon which, although moves towards a certain state ( " targeting " ), without, however, explicitly stated purpose ( " objective intention" ) is detectable.
This seemingly genuine teleological explanations form the actual core of the debate about the teleology. While metaphysically oriented positions in such natural phenomena with an inner not directly identifiable purposefulness argue and want to subsume so under the real teleological explanations, this approach is rejected because of their apparent non-empirical character in the empirical sciences, and instead a return to causal explanations sought, such as in framework of functional analysis or self-regulation.
In contrast to this epistemological position holds v. Wright in those sciences that attempt to explain human behavior (such as sociology, history), in addition to causal and intentional ( teleological ) explanations for permissible and necessary. Here our knowledge are involved through actions and their consequences in the description, as well as the conscious intentions of our action.
In biology
Unlike still in the early modern period, modern biology can explain the appropriateness of natural organisms, structures and systems, without resorting to purpose -setting instances. This particularly affects the physiology and the theory of evolution, where cells or organs were attributed once inner intentions or goals.
The rejection of a higher purpose and the explanation of existing structures by scientific phenomena combines modern biology with other sciences such as chemistry and physics. Naturalistic teleological assumptions with embossing are now no longer represented by the biologists, but also by some theologians. After Gerhard Vollmer is the naturalistic approach is not characterized by a complete elimination of metaphysical conditions, but instead by their minimization. Also the concept of teleology is not used uniformly, which additionally complicates a theoretical foundation. According to Ernst Mayr three meanings of teleology must be differentiated:
Often an apparent to the layman usefulness of natural organisms, structures and systems is explained with natural adjustments or with an organization- related self-regulation. Colin S. Pittendrigh introduced in 1958 the concept of teleonomy which aims to reduce apparent expediency of automatically running programs. This being objected that it would reduce the question of teleology to a purely terminological problem by, although the connotation of inner intention or supernatural control eliminate them, most biologists would reject but this connotation anyway. Similarly, the coupling of the biological concept of function in mathematical functions is not helpful because they do not meet the actual use in biology.
In psychology,
Individual Psychology by Alfred Adler and Rudolf Dreikurs believes that the deep psychological reason drive of man is teleological. Individual psychology speaks in this context of " finality". Adler called the fundamental finality of a people's " lifestyle ". The Analytical Psychology by CG Jung takes out this approach a final methodology of a not only causal- mechanistic, but also from a psycho- energetic point of view.
In the theory of action
In the action theory of practical philosophy teleology serves as a basic principle for the description and explanation. Teleology is the appeal to the target of the action, the realization of the agent has to answer as sequence of actions along with the other episodes. It is checked to see whether these practical consequences contribute (about convenience, usefulness ) for the realization of a value. The reasoning process can be intermediates to between good and bad.
In normative ethics
Furthermore, one called teleological ethics as if these acts merely measure of the induced state without recourse to motives or moral obligations. The Utilitarian Ethics represents such a model, although there is also a movement to expand the utilitarianism to the inclusion of motives for action.
There are also anti- teleological ethics, for example, developed by John Rawls in A Theory of Justice A Theory of Justice.
Many theories in philosophy are teleological in the universalist sense: So for the eudaemonism the objective success in terms of specific life goals crucial for a hedonist, however, the subjective happiness experience ( eg sensory stimuli or experiences of success ) for the utilitarians the satisfaction of needs and for the perfectionists best results in the target culture.
In the jurisprudence
In law, is called " teleology " a special design method called. She is listed as the fourth classical design method, in addition to the grammatical ( a literal analysis), systematic ( the question of the position in the legal system ) and the historic ( the " legislative intent " taken into account and hermeneutic trying to understand which one).
The teleological interpretation of the meaning and purpose of law and seeks to find this out first and attributed to the legal norm to them in accordance with appropriate meanings.