Teleology,Function And Consciousness

The final cause, function and consciousness constitute an independent research subject in the previous philosophy. Since the emergence of teleological functionalism, they have not only been internally associated with each other but also become the unified field of study with consciousness as the center. Teleological functionalism is the latest philosophical theory on mind in contemporary Western philosophy which emerges under the impetus of evolution theory along with the naturalized "biology turn". It is also the latest form of materialism given birth by summarizing the up-to-date achievements in the related fields of natural science. It has not only reformed and developed teleology, building it into the materialistic "new teleology", but also offered constructive answers to the traditional problems in the philosophy of mind based on the latest achievements of this theory and functionalism, which greatly promotes and enriches the cognition of mind and self-knowledge of human beings. To research and study teleological functionalism not only enables us to understand the latest trend of Western philosophy of mind but also plays a significant role in developing Marxist consciousness. This paper aims to examine the origin, evolution, main contents, theoretical modes and the latest trend of teleological functionalism as comprehensively as possible, and present the author’s own thoughts on the re-evaluation of teleology especially on the contemporary development of Marxist consciousness theory and the construct of Chinese philosophy of mind on the theoretical basis of reinterpreting classic Marxist writers’views on final cause, function and consciousness.Contemporary teleological trend of thought is an inevitable product of the inherent contradictory movement of contemporary biology turn and the concerned branches of philosophy, and it is also related to several historical ups and downs especially to Darwin’s teleological thinking. In order to ascertain the source, essence, features and value of contemporary teleology, this paper first examines the historical origin and evolution of teleology in Western thoughts and expounds on the teleological thinking of six representatives in ancient Greek philosophy and modern philosophy. The paper then points out:functionalism, as the most influential theory in contemporary Western philosophy of mind, enjoys the broadest prospects as well as the largest number of followers; it has profound and solid philosophical and scientific underpinnings. In terms of the logic course in the development of philosophical understanding, it can be regarded as a logical result of the physical movement and also the product of the evolution and development of attribution theory and formalism in Western philosophy. The Aristotelian concept of soul already contains the seeds of functionalism. The subsequent scholasticism, rationalism and empiricism philosophy have made a functionalism-oriented description of the nature of mind based on the scientific results then, especially Hobbes and materialism of the eighteenth century who have effectively demonstrated the ontological status of mind as an attribute and function on the basis of insisting on the world’s material unity.Teleological functionalism emerges and develops through overcoming the difficulty posed by non-teleological functionalist theory. Therefore, the author spends the following chapter examining the origin, evolution, main contents and modes of non-teleological functionalism along with the contradictions and difficulties contained. The paper points out: functionalism is a very complex psychosomatic theory, the basic thought of which is to describe psychological attributes by functional attributes and explain psychological state by functional state. If we interpret "reduce" and "naturalize" as to describe the doubtful attributes with scientific terms, that is,"as long as it is possible, it is necessary to replace the constitution in the unknown reality with that in the known reality", then, it can be put this way: the essence of functionalism is to reduce the psychological state to functional state, naturalizing the former by the latter.This paper focuses on the study of origin, evolution, basic view points, individual thoughts and arguments of the major representatives of teleological functionalism, and then it reveals the essence, features and value of teleological functionalism through comparative study. The paper points out: the new teleological functionalism is a theory that provides ultimate explanation for the terms to be explained; in order to achieve this purpose, it is divided into explanans and explanandum; the former provides the basis for explanation, that is, the final cause; the latter is the subject that needs to be explained. However, compared with the old one, the new teleological functionalism has a new and colorful category for final cause, which mainly manifests in the following four aspects:firstly, from the perspective of evolutionary history and genesis, it has reviewed the origin and evolution of final cause and holds the idea that final cause is not innate but come into being in actual life; it is shaped by pre-options and pre-evolution and offered to organism. It emerges and develops with the emergence and development of the organism. Secondly, researches are done into the relationship between final cause and the concerned physical world from synchronic perspective. It holds the idea that final cause is illustrated or realized by the corresponding physical structure and course of organism on which the final cause depends. Thirdly, from the angle of final cause’s form and use, it analyzes "its portrait", discusses the nature, operation mechanism, iconic features of final cause in a multi-faceted and multi-angled manner and explicitly puts forward an important proposition that "final cause is a natural phenomenon". Fourthly, as to the existence and interpretation of the final cause, it emphasizes that the final cause is only an attribute of organism rather than something that everything possesses or pursues. Therefore, its explanatory power is only limited to life.The task of the last two chapters is to conduct a tentative discussion about enriching and developing Marxist consciousness and constructing the Chinese-style philosophy of mind on the basis of summarizing the rational kernel of teleological functionalism as well as re-interpreting Marxist classics on function, final cause and consciousness. The paper indicates that the classic Marxist writers have conducted unique discussions on final cause and teleology. Despite their opposition to the idealist teleology which exaggerates the role of final cause, they have made dialectical and historical descriptions of the relationship between final cause and brain as well as human development, practice, the origin and development of consciousness on the premise of offering materialist instructions on final cause. Meanwhile, the provision in Marxist consciousness theory on the nature of mind or consciousness is not only further evidenced by the results of modern natural science but is also given tacit consent by various forms of materialist monism which enjoys a dominant position in contemporary Western philosophy of mind. However, we should and must see:the rapid development of Western philosophy of mind for more than three decades has posed rigorous problems and sharp challenge to Marxist consciousness theory. As we know, like other forms of materialist monism (cancellation theory excluded), the consciousness theory of Marxism admits:there is nominatum for psychological language like "mind","consciousness" or "psychology", which are the functions and attributes of human brain. But, what is the functional attribute of human brain then? How is it distinguished from other functional attributes of human brain, such as neurophysiological and physicochemical attributes? If there is no difference, that is to say, the signified in psychological language is equivalent to that in physical language, does it fall into reductionism and identity theory then? Reductionism and identity theory emphasize at least the reduction or identity of two levels with one being to reduce psychological language to physical language and the other being to identify the signifieds of the two languages, that is, to identify the so-called psychological phenomenon with the physical phenomenon occurring in human brain. If the signified of psychological language can not be reduced to that of physical language, that is, to refer to functional attributes above the neurophysiological and functional attributes (even if the latter is dependent on the former), then does it mean that it has fallen into dualism? Because, under a new provision, dualism has two forms, namely physical dualism (material substance and mental substance) and attribute dualism (the functional attributes of psychology and physics).Materialist monism seems to be caught in a dilemma of either reductionism or attribute dualism. Is this what its ultimate logical outcome will be? Is it able to break through this dilemma and leap to a new realm, entering a new stage of development? It is, of course, awaiting us to explore. The logic of cognition development is:to understand the difficulties and challenges will create opportunities for breakthrough and qualitative leaps.