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17 - Darwin and Teleology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 May 2013

Michael Ruse
Affiliation:
Florida State University
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Summary

A teleological explanation is one in which some property, process or entity is said to exist or be taking place for the sake of a certain result or consequence. For example, after returning from a run, someone might ask, “Why did you go for a run?” If you answer, “In order to keep fit,” you are explaining your run by pointing to a consequence of running, keeping fit. Or, someone might ask, “Why do hawks and owls have sharp, hooked beaks and talons?” If one answers, “Those sharp talons and hooked beaks are for the sake of capturing and eating their prey,” these traits are explained by reference to the (valuable) consequences for the organism of having those traits. It is not just that they have these traits and these traits serve a valuable function for these birds – they have these traits because they serve this valuable function.

Teleological explanations have played a central role throughout the history of the life sciences. Biological textbooks invariably suggest that teleological explanations were expunged from the physical sciences in the seventeenth century and finally, thanks to Charles Darwin, from the biological sciences in the nineteenth. And yet the same textbooks often explain adaptations by reference to natural selection in language that sounds suspiciously teleological. “That color pattern is present in the males of that population of fish because it increases their attractiveness to female mates without increasing their visibility to predators.”

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2013

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  • Darwin and Teleology
  • Edited by Michael Ruse, Florida State University
  • Book: The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Darwin and Evolutionary Thought
  • Online publication: 05 May 2013
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139026895.019
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  • Darwin and Teleology
  • Edited by Michael Ruse, Florida State University
  • Book: The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Darwin and Evolutionary Thought
  • Online publication: 05 May 2013
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139026895.019
Available formats
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  • Darwin and Teleology
  • Edited by Michael Ruse, Florida State University
  • Book: The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Darwin and Evolutionary Thought
  • Online publication: 05 May 2013
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139026895.019
Available formats
×