Editing Teleonomy (section)

==Philosophy==
The Dutch Jewish philosopher [[Baruch Spinoza]] defined ''conatus'' as the tendency for individual things to persist in existence, meaning the pursuit of stability within the internal relations between their individual parts, in a similar way to [[homeostasis]].
Spinoza also rejected the idea of [[finalism]] and asserted nature does not pursue specific goals and acts in a deterministic although non-directed way.

In teleology, [[Immanuel Kant|Kant]]'s positions as expressed in [[Critique of Judgment]], were neglected for many years because in the minds of many scientists they were associated with [[Vitalism|vitalist]] views of evolution. Their recent rehabilitation is evident in teleonomy{{Citation needed|date=September 2020}}, which bears a number of features, such as the description of organisms, that are reminiscent of the Aristotelian conception of [[final cause]]s as essentially recursive in nature. Kant's position is that, even though we cannot know whether there are final causes in nature, we are constrained by the peculiar nature of the human understanding to view organisms teleologically. Thus the Kantian view sees teleology as a necessary principle for the study of organisms, but only as a regulative principle, and with no ontological implications.<ref>{{cite book |title=Understanding Purpose |last=Huneman |first=Philippe |date=2007 |publisher=University of Rochester Press |isbn= 978-1-58046-265-5 |pages= 1–37 }}</ref>

[[Talcott Parsons]], in the later part of his working with a theory of [[Sociocultural evolution|social evolution]] and a related theory of world-history, adopted the concept of teleonomy as the fundamental organizing principle for directional processes and his theory of [[Social change|societal development]] in general. In this way, Parsons tried to find a theoretical compromise between [[Voluntarism (philosophy)|voluntarism]] as a principle of action and the idea of a certain directionality in history.