Behavior, Purpose and Teleology
1943/01/01 by Arturo Rosenblueth, A. Rosenblueth, Norbert Wiener +1 · 1,552 citations
Decision Sciences · Psychology · #Artificial intelligence #Complex Systems and Decision Making #Computer science #Epistemology #Event (particle physics) #Generality #History #Natural (archaeology) #Object (grammar) #Philosophy #Physics #Psychology #Teleology
paper · doi:10.1086/286788
published in Philosophy of Science 10(1), 18-24 (Cambridge University Press)
openalex publication_date 1943/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Abstract
This essay has two goals. The first is to define the behavioristic study of natural events and to classify behavior. The second is to stress the importance of the concept of purpose. Given any object, relatively abstracted from its surroundings for study, the behavioristic approach consists in the examination of the output of the object and of the relations of this output to the input. By output is meant any change produced in the surroundings by the object. By input, conversely, is meant any event external to the object that modifies this object in any manner.
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