The Organizational View of Biological Functions and Hegel’s Teleological Conception of Life

Based on Hegel’s teleology, this paper critically examines the organizational view’s attempt to integrate the etiological and dispositional perspectives on biological functions. It ultimately presents Hegel’s teleology as a genuine unification of these dual aspects. Firstly, the paper will demonstrate how Hegel’s discussion of the shape (Gestalt) of individual organisms resolves the issues of closure and differentiation that arise within the organizational view. Subsequently, it will establish that Hegel’s perspective on the relationship between organisms and their environment, which considers the internal constitution of organisms as the cause rather than the result of natural selection, can effectively account for the phenotypic plasticity proposed by the new theory of adaptation. This paper ultimately argues that Hegel’s teleology, based on the logic of the concept that derives the particular from the universal, can consistently explain shape, assimilation, and reproduction with a unified logic and normativity.