This bibliography gathers publications over many years from a variety of researchers exploring topics of agency, directionality, and function (among others) with a special emphasis on CASP members. It began with work from teams within the initial Agency, Directionality and Function project and continues to be populated with papers and articles from diverse researchers looking to further develop and expand ways of working interdisciplinarily on the complex theme of teleology.
Included in the bibliography are entries for publications and books that many scholars involved in the Agency, Directionality and Function project recommended as foundational texts in their field of study. We welcome suggestions for additions to the bibliography from CASP members.
Function and Teleology
Kaiser, M. (2018). “ENCODE and the parts of the human genome.” Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences 72:28–37.
Kant, I. (1952) [1790]. Critique of Judgement. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Keegan, G., & Patten, M. M. (2022). Selfish evolution of placental hormones. Evolution, Medicine, and Public Health, 10(1), 391–397.
Lennox, J.G. (1992) “Teleology.” In Keywords in Evolutionary Biology. Edited by E.F. Keller and E.A. Lloyd. Cambridge (MA): Harvard University Press, 324–333.
Lennox, J.G. (2001b). Aristotle's Philosophy of Biology: Studies in the Origin of Life Science. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Lennox, J.G. (2019). “Aristotle’s biology.” In The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2019 Edition), Edited by E.N. Zalta: https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2019/entries/aristotle-biology/.
Lennox, J.G. and Kampourakis, K. (2013). “Biological teleology: the need for history.” In The Philosophy of Biology: A Companion for Educators. Edited by K. Kampourakis. Springer Dordrecht.
Lennox, James G. (2003). Aristotle: On the Parts of Animals. Philosophical Quarterly 53 (213):607-609.
Lenoir, T. (1982). The Strategy of Life: Teleology and Mechanics in Nineteenth Century German Biology. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Leunissen, M. (2010). Explanation and Teleology in Aristotle’s Science of Nature. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Lewens, T. (2004). Organisms and Artifacts: Design in Nature and Elsewhere. Cambridge (UK): Cambridge University Press.
Li, M. Y., Callaway, F., Thompson, W. D., Adams, R. P., & Griffiths, T. L. (2023). Learning to Learn Functions. Cognitive Science, 47(4), e13262.
Love, A. C., & Dresow, M. (2022). Organizing Interdisciplinary Research on Purpose. BioScience, 72(4), 321–323.
Love, A.C. (2007). “Functional homology and homology of function: biological concepts and philosophical consequences.” Biology and Philosophy 22:691–708.
Magner, E. T., Roy, R., Freund Saxhaug, K., Zambre, A., Bruns, K., Snell‐Rood, E. C., Hampton, M., Hegeman, A. D., & Carter, C. J. (2023). Post‐secretory synthesis of a natural analog of iron‐gall ink in the black nectar of Melianthus spp. New Phytologist, nph.18859.
Mayr, E. (1974). "Teleological and teleonomic: a new analysis.” Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science 14:133–159.
McLaughlin, P. (1990). Kant's Critique of Teleology in Biological Explanation. Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen Press.
McLaughlin, P. (2001). What Functions Explain: Functional Explanation and Self-Reproducing Systems. Cambridge (UK): Cambridge University Press.
McShea, D.W. (2012). “Upper-directed systems: a new approach to teleology in biology.” Biology and Philosophy 27:663–688.
McShea, D.W. (2016). “Freedom and purpose in biology.” Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences 58:64–72.
Militello, G., Bich, L., & Moreno, A. (2021). Functional Integration and Individuality in Prokaryotic Collective Organisations. Acta Biotheoretica, 69(3), 391–415.
Millikan, R.G. (1984), Language, Thought, and Other Biological Categories: New Foundations for Realism. Cambridge (MA): The MIT Press.
Moreno, A., Etxeberria, A. and Umerez, J. (2008). “The autonomy of biological individuals and artificial models.” BioSystems 91:309–319.
Mossio, M. and A. Moreno. (2015). Biological Autonomy. Springer Dordrecht.
Mossio, M., & Pontarotti, G. (n.d.). Conserving Functions across Generations: Heredity in Light of Biological Organization.