A Cognitive Mechanism Perspective Of Teleological Explanation

While teleology has been extensively studied for a long time,current philosophical thought has abandoned Aristotle's cosmic teleology as a pro-science theory,and instead focuses on how modern science has eliminated the teleological parts in construction of natural phenomena.However the modern scientific descriptions to this world are not complete and the teleological ones are still adaptable.This dissertation originates from the following questions:Why have teleological explanations always been accompanied by how people construe the world in which we live?Why do we still need teleological explanations in our daily lives even after we accept modern scientific causal explanations?Furthermore,is the model of teleological thinking necessary and justified?Where does the teleological instinct originate even it is at odds with modern physics?The existing discussion,which arises from abstract analyses of logic and ontology,does not sufficiently answer these questions.Using studies from children's teleological explanations,I apply a new approach to answer these questions.Since people's eagerness to give everything an explanation is driven by their desire to understand this world,we can better know why the model of teleological explanation exists by asking how people understand this world in the beginning and then rationalize it.After all,teleological explanations are descriptions used to make the world in which people live understandable,so after examining the existing arguments on teleological explanations,I suggest that we reconsider teleological explanations from a cognitive perspective.So how do individuals begin to understand why things exist and how they happened?In this dissertation I introduce studies and theories on child's teleological explanation from Keil,Kelemen and Gergely&Csibra.They argue that children have an innate teleological stance that is a tendency to construe things as if they exist and happen for purposes.This model of thinking has its inherent cognitive mechanism.The origin of the teleological stance is a key point,because it is related to the relationship with the intentional stance,which is important in understanding why behavioral explanations are teleological.However the source of the teleological stance is still controversial.I first analyze and criticize the three theories of the origin of the teleological stance.Then based on studies and theories from the theory of mind,the philosophy of mind,and neuroscience,I argue that the teleological stance derives from an infant's initial mind state of desire/goal.I also defend the non-causality of this stance and try to analyze its roles in human evolution.The explanatory power of the teleological stance is not from its consistency with things ontologically;instead it relies on its serviceability:it is concise and efficient,and thus helpful for human survival.The teleological stance is an adaptation that the more accurate yet cognitively complicated causal explanation does not have.The study of cognitive mechanisms of the teleological stance and of related neuroscience studies provides a scientific base from which to understand the model of teleological explanation.Teleological explanation was seen by Kant as a way by which subjects can observe nature effectively.When we think about the originating mechanisms for teleological explanation,the neuro-scientific base,and the evolutionary meaning,we are trying to look for teleological explanation's physical base and necessity in the mechanical frame,and trying to justify teleological explanations of non-physical world in this model of thinking,instead of talking about its ontology and methodology.Furthermore,as a kind of description of this world,teleological explanations also exist for the following reasons:as a law of specific sciences,as one of the basic models of explanation,and as a complement to causal explanations.If we take the teleological stance as an innate behavioral explanatory mechanism,we need to re-think some basic theories based on cognitive causality in the areas of cognition and philosophy of mind.This study of teleological explanation is related to philosophy,to cognition and development,and to neuroscience and evolutionary psychology.Thus it is insufficient to think about this topic only as part of logic and ontology.Mechanism study provides a new perspective from which to understand teleological explanation as a model of thinking.More support from empirical research is required to fully understand this new approach.