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Телеология и телеономия аутопоэтических систем
The article is dedicated to the study of concepts of goal-directedness in the philosophy of biology, such as teleology and teleonomy. The author analyzes the historical evolution of ideas of purposiveness in 20th-century philosophy of biology, critiques teleological approaches in the context of modern evolutionary theory, and explores contemporary biological thought. The article examines the concept of teleonomy proposed by Colin Pittendrigh, which interprets goal-directedness as a result of the internal organization of systems, excluding externally predetermined goals. The conceptual differences between teleology and teleonomy are highlighted. The main focus of the article is on the concept of autopoiesis developed by Humberto Maturana and Francisco Varela. This concept describes
living systems as autonomous, self-reproducing structures that interact with their environment through the mechanism of structural coupling. The author provides a detailed examination of the ontology of structural determinism, asserting that the behavior of systems is determined by their internal structure, while external influences merely trigger structurally consistent changes. The article aims to demonstrate the genetic connection between Wiener’s cybernetic teleology, von Foerster’s second-order cybernetics – both sources of the theory of autopoiesis – and the concept of structural coupling of an autopoietic system with its environment. It also seeks to reveal the teleonomy of autopoietic systems as manifested within the framework of the concept of structural determinism. The study shows that Maturana’s concept of structural coupling can be explained through the description of negative feedback between the organism and the contingent external environment. It is demonstrated that neither structural determinism nor the concept of autopoiesis imposes an absolute prohibition on teleonomic descriptions of autopoietic systems, which is connected to the unique interpretation of causality and organization of such systems in Maturana’s philosophy.