Thursdays at 10am in the Board Room
Organisers: Niall Roe (nrr32) and Nikki Levesley (nml46)
This group meets weekly and discusses questions related to purpose and progress in science. E.g.,
- What is a purpose?
- Is purpose different from function, goal, telos?
- What is the relationship between purpose and intentionality?
- How are purposes used to explain in the sciences?
- How has this changed through science’s history?
- Does science progress?
- How has the notion of progress changed?
- Does science have a purpose?
- Does it need one?
Our aim is to have a focused question for each term and approach it from many angles, philosophical and historical.
Michaelmas Term 2024: Teleology in 20th-Century Philosophy of Biology
This term we will look at how teleology was treated in 20th-century philosophy of biology. These discussions focused around:
- a kind of phenomenon (goal-directed behaviour – influenced by the burgeoning impacts of cybernetics and behavioural psychology), and
- a kind of explanation (influenced by the success of Darwinian natural selection and cybernetic mechanisms, but aiming to keep to a Newtonian, physicalist metaphysics, avoiding spooky metaphysical ideas from previous teleologists).
We will read a core selection from the history of this discussion, starting in the 1940s.
As always, we are happy to amend the reading list to accommodate emerging interests of the group.
17 October
Rosenblueth, Arturo, Norbert Wiener, and Julian Bigelow. 1943. 'Behavior, Purpose and Teleology.' Philosophy of Science, 18–24.
Taylor, Richard. 1950. 'Purposeful and Non-Purposeful Behavior: A Rejoinder.' Philosophy of Science 17 (4): 327–32.
24 October
Braithwaite, Richard Bevan. 1946. 'Teleological Explanation: The Presidential Address.' Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society 47:i–xx.
31 October
Scheffler, Israel. 1959. 'Thoughts on Teleology.' The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 9 (36): 265–84.
7 November
Ayala, Francisco J. 1970. 'Teleological Explanations in Evolutionary Biology.' Philosophy of Science 37 (1): 1–15.
14 November
Wright, Larry. 1972. 'Explanation and Teleology.' Philosophy of Science 39 (2): 204–18.
21 November
Nagel, Ernest. 1977. 'Goal-Directed Processes in Biology.' The Journal of Philosophy 74 (5): 261.
28 November
Mayr, Ernst. 1998. 'The Multiple Meanings of Teleological.' In Ernst Mayr, Towards a New Philosophy of Biology: Observations of an Evolutionist (Essay 3, pp. 38–66). Belknap Press.