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Abstract
This chapter takes up Jonas’ philosophical legacy as a site for developing a scientifically viable theory of the organism as a ‘natural purpose.’ It follows a suggestion by the late Francisco Varela that we need to move beyond the unstable position set out by Kant in the Critique of Judgement in order to provide a novel understanding of biological individuality. The chapter explores the theoretical potential of this claim by investigating the role the philosophy of Hans Jonas could play in helping us develop a naturalistic philosophy of biology that rejects both reductive physicalism and the metaphysical idea of teleology as intelligent design but still takes teleology seriously as a natural phenomenon.
