Teleology which focuses instead on goal-contribution. With the objective goals of organisms being survival and inclusive fitness, Piccinini and Maley define teleological functions to be “a stable contribution by a trait (or component, activity, property) of organisms belonging to a biological population to an objective goal of those organisms.” Julian Bigelow, Arturo Rosenblueth, and Norbert Wiener have conceived of feedback mechanisms as lending a teleology to machinery. Wiener, a mathematician, coined the term 'cybernetics' to denote the study of "teleological mechanisms." Cybernetics is the study of the communication and control of regulatory feedback both in living beings and machines, and in
An Essay Concerning Human Understanding He also argued that Locke's conception of material substance was unintelligible, a view which he also later advanced in the "Three Dialogues Between Hylas and Philonous". At the same time, Locke's work provided crucial groundwork for future empiricists such as David Hume. John Wynne published "An Abridgment of Mr. Locke's Essay concerning the Human Understanding", with Locke's approval, in 1696. Louisa Capper wrote "An Abridgment of Locke's Essay concerning the Human Understanding", published in 1811. An Essay Concerning Human Understanding An Essay Concerning Human Understanding is a work by John Locke concerning the foundation of human knowledge and understanding. It