Abstract: I characterize Hegel’s stance on biological purposiveness as consisting in a twofold move, which conceives organisms as intrinsically purposive natural systems and focuses on their behavioral and cognitive abilities. I submit that a Hegelian stance is at play in enactivism, the branch of the contemporary theory of biological autonomy devoted to the study of cognition and the mind. What is at stake in the Hegelian stance is the elaboration of a naturalized, although non-reductive, understanding of natural purposiveness.
Bio: Andrea Gambarotto is research fellow at the Institut Supérieur de Philosophie, UC Louvain, Belgum. His main areas of expertise are classical German philosophy, philosophy of nature, and philosophy of biology. He is currently developing a project on Hegel’s 'philosophy of biology'.