Selected issues of teleological and holistic perspective of morphogenetic and behavioral phenomena of living beings

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Biocosmological Association

Abstrakt

Wholeness of vital processes in both, internal and external dimension is manifested, according to Aristotle’s terminology, by a substantial living form and is a condition of a purposeful behavior. Authors claim that, empirical data concerning animals tool use, and data concerning regulating processes, inside every living organism, cognitively force us to place them within teleological-holistic conceptual frames. According to the authors, teleology requires a renewed revision and specific defining. Although, from one hand, some researchers think that it is an adequate tool used to describe biological purposeful processes, from the other hand it has often been weeded out and replaced by physical concept of function. Biological functionality intuitively links with the concept of wholeness and purposefulness. It should be emphasized, however, that not always simply physical concept of function may coincide with the concept of function in a biological sense, in spite of the fact that some relations observed within a living organism might by expressed thanks to a physical concept alone.

Opis

This article presents a teleological and holistic perspective on morphogenetic processes and the behaviour of living organisms, emphasising their inherent purposiveness and internal unity. Drawing on the ideas of Aristotle and the research of Hans Driesch, the authors argue that the development and behaviour of organisms cannot be adequately explained solely in mechanistic terms. By examining examples of tool use in animals, they demonstrate that biological phenomena are best interpreted within a teleological–holistic framework that recognises both their goal-directed nature and their integration into a coherent functional whole.

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