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Behavior, Purpose, and Teleology (Rosenblueth, Wiener, Bigelow)
Behavior, Purpose, and Teleology (Rosenblueth, Wiener, Bigelow)
This essay has two goals. The first is to de- object is the source of the output energy in-
fine the behavioristic study of natural events volved in a given specific reaction. The object
and to classify behavior. The second is to may store energy supplied by a remote or rela-
stress the importance of the concept of pur- tively immediate input, but the input does not
pose. energize the output directly. In passive behav-
Given any object, relatively abstracted from ior, on the contrary, the object is not a source
its surroundings for study, the behavioristic of energy; all the energy in the output can be
approach consists in the examination of the traced to the immediate input (e.g., the throw-
output of the object and of the relations of this ing of an object), or else the object may control
output to the input. By output is meant any energy which remains external to it through-
change produced in the surroundings by the out the reaction (e.g., the soaring flight of a
object. By input, conversely, is meant any bird).
event external to the object that modifies this Active behavior may be subdivided into two
object in any manner. classes: purposeless (or random) and purpose-
The above statement of what is meant by ful. The term purposeful is meant to denote
the behavioristic method of study omits the that the act or behavior may be interpreted
specific structure and the instrinsic organi- as directed to the attainment of a goal — i.e.,
zation of the object. This omission is fun- to a final condition in which the behaving ob-
damental because on it is based the distinc- ject reaches a definite correlation in time or in
tion between the behavioristic and the alter- space with respect to another object or event.
native functional method of study. In a func- Purposeless behavior then is that which is not
tional analysis, as opposed to a behavioristic interpreted as directed to a goal.
approach, the main goal is the intrinsic orga- The vagueness of the words may be inter-
nization of the entity studied, its structure and preted as used above might be considered so
its properties; the relations between the object great that the distinction would be useless. Yet
and the surroundings are relatively incidental. the recognition that behavior may sometimes
From this definition of the behavioristic be purposeful is unavoidable and useful, as
method a broad definition of behavior ensues. follows. — The basis of the concept of purpose
By behavior is meant any change of an en- is the awareness of voluntary activity. Now, the
tity with respect to its surroundings. This purpose of voluntary acts is not a matter of ar-
change may be largely an output from the ob- bitrary interpretation but a physiological fact.
ject, the input being then minimal, remote or When we perform a voluntary action what we
irrelevant; or else the change may be immedi- select voluntarily is a specific purpose, not a
ately traceable to a certain input. Accordingly, specific movement. Thus, if we decide to take
any modification of an object, detectable exter- a glass containing water and carry it to our
nally, may be denoted as behavior. The term mouth we do not command certain muscles to
would be, therefore, too extensive for useful- contract to a certain degree and in a certain
ness were it not that it may be restricted by sequence; we merely trip the purpose and the
apposite adjectives — i.e., that behavior may reaction follows automatically. Indeed, exper-
be classified. imental physiology has so far been largely in-
The consideration of the changes of energy capable of explaining the mechanism of volun-
involved in behavior affords a basis for classi- tary activity. We submit that this failure is due
fication. Active behavior is that in which the to the fact that when an experimenter stimu-