Evidence map›Paper›PMID 41996007›Full record

ArticleHistory and philosophy of the life sciences2026

What teleology (if any) does the Organisational Approach naturalise?

Rebecca Riccardo Cuciniello

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in History and philosophy of the life sciences, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
0citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

0 citing papers in PubMed.

No citing paper in PubMed yet.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

1 author.

Rebecca Riccardo CucinielloDipartimento di Antichità, Filosofia, Storia (DAFIST), Philosophy Section, University of Genoa, Via Balbi 4, 16126, Genova, Italy. riccardo.cuciniello01@universitadipavia.it.ORCID http://orcid.org/0009-0008-2311-2407

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

The Organisational Approach (OA) draws from Kant's notion of natural purpose to offer a naturalistic account of teleology grounded in biological organisation, and a characterisation of biological purposiveness, i.e. what goals organisms have, and how they seek and achieve them. This paper re-examines the OA in light of two persistent issues: (1) whether organisational teleology can be causally realised in a way compatible with mechanism; and (2) how far the OA successfully extends across biological areas, development in particular. I distinguish two versions of the OA: a minimal model, focused on the self-maintenance of a stable organisation; a regulative model, which introduces regulation as a principle of teleological change. I argue that the minimal model successfully naturalises teleology, but at the price of a too narrow view of purposiveness as physiological self-maintenance. Instead, the regulative model offers a sui generis and potentially fruitful view of teleological change, blurring the boundary between physiology and development; however, it struggles to remain a naturalistic account. I introduce "design" and "epigeneticity" criteria for biological teleology to show how different ways of defining biological goals can either hinder or favour teleological naturalism, and thus the OA itself. This paper thus clarifies what kind of teleology the OA can naturalise, and where further theoretical work is required.

Indexed as

PhilosophyHumansBiological organisationDesignDevelopmentEpigeneticityKantMechanismTeleology

Identifiers

PMID41996007
PMCPMC13090298

What OpenQuestion holds

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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.