Abstract
Darwin's biology was “teleological” only if the term “teleology” is defined in a manner that fails to recognize his contribution to the metaphysics and epistemology of modern science. His use of teleological metaphors in a strictly teleonomic context is irrelevant to the meaning of his discourse. The myth of Darwin's alleged teleology is partly due to misinterpretations of discussions about whether morphology should be a purely formal science. Merely rejecting such notions as special creation and vitalism does not prevent the pernicious effects of teleological reasoning, even at the present time.
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References
Michael T. Ghiselin: 1969,The Triumph of the Darwinian Method. 1st ed. Berkeley: University of California Press.
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James, G. Lennox: 1992, ‘Teleology’, in Evelyn Fox Keller and Elisabeth A. Lloyd, editors,Keywords in Evolutionary Biology. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 323–333.
Richard Owen: 1860,Palæontology or a Systematic Survey of Extinct Animals and their Geological Relations. Edinburgh: Adam and Charles Black.
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Ghiselin, M.T. Darwin's language may seem teleological, but his thinking is another matter. Biol Philos 9, 489–492 (1994). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00850377
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00850377