Teleological causes have been generally disfavoured in biological explanations because they have been thought to lack rigor or act as stand-ins for non-teleological processes which are simply not yet understood sufficiently. Teleological explanations in biology have been limited to only teleonomic causes, which are teleological causes that are due to codes or similarly reified mechanisms. However, advances in the conceptualization of teleological and teleonomic causation have allowed for more quantitative analyses of both. Additionally, although teleonomy has been historically excluded from potential causes of evolution, new research has shown that teleonomy actually plays a significant role in evolution. Combining these advances with advances in computability theory and information theory have allowed for a more rigorous and quantitative analysis of the capabilities and limitations of teleonomy in evolution.
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This study considers the dialogue in the USSR between semiotics, cybernetics, and information theory, as a case study of the complexities of conceptual transfer between disciplines. Yuri Lotman’s use of the concept of entropy in literary criticism is especially telling. Information theory defines entropy in terms of a system’s complexity and predictability, while its metaphoric use outside that discipline connotes chaos and destruction. Lotman’s use of the term oscillates between these contradictory meanings and exemplifies both his development as a thinker leading towards his concept of the explosion, and his position as an intermediary figure (a mediator, to use his own term) between scientific and literary discourse. The tensions and the promise of a transient point of interdisciplinary encounter in 1960s Russia foreshadow current forays at dialogue between the sciences and the humanities, and illuminate, more generally, the grey area between literal and metaphorical uses of one discipline’s terminology in another disciplinary context.
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