Teleology and biology
Contra Noah Millman, who recently claimed , "we can’t rely naively on an Aristotelean teleology which we now know has no empirical basis" (God knows what he meant here!), teleology pervades modern biology, and there is absolutely no sign it can be gotten rid of. Take this report of recent sloth research in the NY Times : I find at least the following uses of teleology in explaining what the sloths are up to, with the key teleological words highlighted: "[the three-toed sloth] has carved out a remarkably ingenious mode of life in the treetops" (Something is ingenious in that it achieves an end very economically.) " Why then does the sloth take such a risk every week?" (For what end ?) "They started by trying to understand what would compel the sloth to brave the dangers of a weekly visit to ground zero." (To what end would it do so?) "Rather, they assumed, it was to favor a critical component of the sloth’s ecosystem, the pyra...