Keyword: organizational closure

This new special issue of Synthese challenges the widespread neglect of teleology in analytic philosophy, demonstrating its ongoing relevance across multiple domains. While often dismissed due to its historical associations with Aristotelianism and pre-Darwinian thought, teleological explanations remain indispensable in understanding biological functions, human agency, social institutions, and even aspects of epistemology and ethics. The […]

Author: Leonardo Bich Date of publication: 04 December 2024 Publisher: Cambridge University Press The PDF version of this book is available here. Summary Living systems are complex systems made of components that tend to degrade, but nonetheless they maintain themselves far from equilibrium. This requires living systems to extract energy and materials from the environment […]

In a previous post, we discussed causal circularity in living systems using the continental hydrological cycle as an example (which can be consulted in the text “Do forests play a role in the continental hydrological cycle in tropical regions?”). We concluded that text by asking whether forests indeed play a role in maintaining the continental […]