Teleonomy

Teleonomy is the quality of apparent purposefulness and of goal-directedness of structures and functions in living organisms brought about by natural laws (like natural selection). The term derives form two Greek words, τέλος telos ("end, purpose") and νόμος nomos ("law"), and means "end-directed" (literally "purpose-law"). Teleonomy is sometimes posited instead of teleology, where the latter is understood as a purposeful goal-directedness brought about through human or divine intention. Teleonomy is thought to derive from evolutionary history, adaptation for reproductive success, and/or the operation of a program. Teleonomy is related to programmatic or computational aspects of purpose.

In 1958, Colin Pittendrigh first proposed the term "teleonomy" to stand in contrast with "teleology", which applies to ends that are planned by an agent which can internally model/imagine various alternative futures and enables intention, purpose and foresight. In 1962, Grace A. de Laguna's "The Role of Teleonomy in Evolution" fleshed the applicability of the term to biological history and adaptation.

Colin Pittendrigh, who coined the term, applied it to biological phenomena that appear to be end-directed:

Biologists for a while were prepared to say a turtle came ashore and laid its eggs. These verbal scruples were intended as a rejection of teleology but were based on the mistaken view that the efficiency of final causes is necessarily implied by the simple description of an end-directed mechanism. … The biologists long-standing confusion would be removed if all end-directed systems were described by some other term, e.g., ‘teleonomic,’ in order to emphasize that recognition and description of end-directedness does not carry a commitment to Aristotelian teleology as an efficient causal principle.

In 1965 Ernst Mayr cited Pittendrigh and criticized him for not making a “clear distinction between the two teleologies of Aristotle”; evolution involves Aristotle's material causes and formal causes rather than efficient causes. Mayr adopted Pittendrigh’s term, but supplied his own definition:

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