Abstract
It is often claimed that one of Darwin's chief accomplishments was to provide biology with a non-teleological explanation of adaptation. A number of Darwin's closest associates, however, and Darwin himself, did not see it that way. In order to assess whether Darwin's version of evolutionary theory does or does not employ teleological explanation, two of his botanical studies are examined. The result of this examination is that Darwin sees selection explanations of adaptations as teleological explanations. The confusion in the nineteenth century about Darwin's attitude to teleology is argued to be a result of Darwin's teleological explanations not conforming to either of the dominant philosophical justifications of teleology at that time. Darwin's explanatory practices conform well, however, to recent defenses of the teleological character of selection explanations.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
Appel, Toby A.: 1987,The Cuvier-Geoffroy Debate: French Biology in the Decades Before Darwin, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Ayala, F. A.: 1970, ‘Teleological Explanations in Evolutionary Biology’,Philosophy of Science 37, 1–15.
Barrett, Paul (ed.): 1977,The Collected Papers of Charles Darwin (Two Volumes in One), University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
Barrett, Paul et al. (eds.): 1987,Charles Darwin's Notebooks: 1936–1844, Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY.
Beatty, John: 1985, ‘Speak of Species: Darwin's Strategy’, in David Kohn (ed.),The Darwinian Heritage, Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ. pp. 265–282.
Beatty, John: 1990, ‘Teleology and the Relationship Between Biology and the Physical Sciences in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries’ in Durham and Purringtion (eds.),Some Truer Method: Reflections on the Heritage of Newton, Columbia University Press, New York, pp. 113–144.
Binswanger, Harry: 1990,The Biological Basis of Teleological Concepts, Any Rand Institute, Los Angeles.
Brandon, Robert: 1981, ‘Biological Teleology: Questions and Explanations’,Studies in History and Philosophy of Science 12, 91–105.
Brandon, Robert: 1990,Adaptation and Environment, Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ.
Cornell, John F.: 1986, ‘Newton of the Grassblade? Darwin and the Problem of Organic Teleology’,Isis 77, 405–421.
Darwin, Charles: 1964,On the Origin of Species: A Facsimile of the First Edition, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA.
Darwin, Charles: 1984,The Various Contrivances by Which Orchids are Fertilised by Insects, Second Editon, Revised, With a New Foreword by Michael Ghiselin, The University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
Darwin, Francis: 1887,The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin (3 vols.), John Murray, London.
Darwin, Francis: 1892,Charles Darwin, His Life Told in an Autobiographical Chapter and in a Selected Series of his Published Letters, D. Appleton and Co., New York. Reprinted by Dover Publications, New York, 1958.
Ghiselin, Michael T.: 1969,The Triumph of the Darwinian Method, University of California Press, Berkeley, CA.
Gray, Asa: 1963, ‘Natural Selection Is Not Inconsistent with Natural Theology’, in A. Hunter Dupree (ed.),Asa Gray: Darwiniana, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA.
Huxley, T. H.: 1898, ‘Criticisms on the Origin of Species’ (reprinted from 1864),Darwiniana, Appleton, New York.
Lennox, James G.: 1992, ‘Teleology’, in Elizabeth Lloyd and Evelyn Fox Keller (eds.),Keywords in Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA.
Lenoir, Timothy: 1982,The Strategy of Life: Teleology and Mechanics in Nineteenth Century German Biology, University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
Mayr, Ernst: 1982,The Growth of Biological Thought, Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA.
Mayr, Ernst: 1988,Towards a New Philosophy of Biology, Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA.
Ospovat, Dov: 1981,The Development of Darwin's Theory: Natural History, Natural Theology and Natural Selection, 1839–1859, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, U.K.
Ruse, Michael: 1988,Philosophy of Biology Today, State University of New York Press, Albany, NY.
Salmon, Wesley C.: 1990,Four Decades of Scientific Explanation, University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, Minn.
Whewell, William: 1833,Astronomy and General Physics Considered with Reference to Natural Theology, Pickering, London.
Williams, George G.: 1966,Adaptation and Natural Selection, Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ.
Wimsatt, William C.: 1972, ‘Teleology and the Logical Structure of Function Statements’,Studies in History and Philosophy of Science 3, 1–80.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
I would like to thank John Beatty, David Hull and one of this journal's readers for constructive comments on an earlier draft of this paper.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Lennox, J.G. Darwin was a teleologist. Biol Philos 8, 409–421 (1993). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00857687
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00857687