TELEOLOGY AND BIOLOGICAL REDUCTIONISM

Abstract

Th e teleological trend in thinking in the reductive theories in biology,especially in orthogenetic and the psycho-Lamarckian variant of the endogenoustheory of evolution, and thereaft er in the echtogeneous conceptions of evolutionarytheory, is expressed in the general stance concerning absolute organic purposefulness,which is understood as a primary feature of all living organisms. Organistic theories,according to which purposefulness is not a feature of living systems, are not logicallycompleted by means of epistemological and methodological reductionism in termsof the question of the origin and nature of material life. Th e essence is thus in thechoice of primary reasons in logical argumentation of the interpretation of knowledgeabout the elementary processes of the biological history of living systems.