Teleology in Biology: A Kantian Perspective

One of the most widely debated issues in contemporary philosophy of biology is the prob lem of teleology. How are we to understand apparently teleological concepts, such as that of a “function”, given our conception of science as providing causal explanations for nat ural phenomena? In this paper, I reconsider this debate from a Kantian perspective. The crucial contribution of the Kantian account is to argue both that teleology plays an impor tant heuristic role in the search for causal explanations of nature and that it is for us an inevitable analogical perspective on living beings. The Kantian perspective, I shall argue, is not only compatible with the modern life sciences but can advance the debate about tele ology in biology precisely because it does not interpret teleology naturalistically.