title: Wholes that cause their parts: organic self-reproduction and the reality of biological teleology.
abstract: A well-rehearsed move among teleological realists in the philosophy of biology is to base the idea of genuinely teleological forms of organic self-reproduction on a type of causality derived from Kant. Teleological realists have long argued for the causal possibility of this form of causality--in which a whole is considered the cause of its parts--as well as formulated a set of teleological criteria of adequacy for it. What is missing, to date, is an account of the mereological principles that govern the envisioned whole-to-part causality. When the latter principles are taken into account, we find that there is no version of whole-to-part causality that is mereologically, causally and teleologically possible all at once, as teleological realism requires.
authors.affiliation: Department of Philosophy, VC 5-288, Baruch College, The City University of New York, One Bernard Baruch Way, New York, NY 10010, USA. thomas.teufel@baruch.cuny.edu
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Teufel
mesh_terms: D001695:Biology; D008678:Metaphysics; D012098:Reproduction