> At 02:42 PM 20/09/96 EDT, you wrote:
> >Sorry. My mistake. The glossary is in the back of "The Extended
> >Phenotype."
>
> For those that don't yet have a copy of this excellent tome:
>
> teleonomy - The science of adaptation. In effect teleonomy is teleology
> made respectable by Darwin, but generations of biologists have been
> schooled to avoid 'teleology' as though it were an incorrect construction
> in Latin grammar, and many feel more comfortable with a euphemism. Not
> much thought has been given to what the science of telonomy will consist
> of, but some of its major preoccupations will presumably be the questions
> of units of selection, and of costs and other constraints on perfection.
> This book is an essay on teleonomy.
>
> [There is no definition of teleology in my edition.]
Darwin apparently cleaned up 'teleology' into 'teleonomy' by removing the
Deism-or-more-extravagant religious assumption from the definition.
'Teleology' is a branch of the halfway-to-vaporware 'Theology'. [In some
churches, it already IS. Those are highly worth avoiding.] [Anytime you
KNOW that you can't state key concepts in the language you're using, the
field is halfway to incoherent.]
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/ Kenneth Boyd
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