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(2016) Consensus on Peirce's concept of habit, Dordrecht, Springer.
Peirce's habit-taking relates primarily to formal causes. Leaving aside human purposes, finality in nature has been identified as both natural tendency and function. I propose that true finality should be viewed as a pull from the future rather than as a tendency to maintain a continuing present. This disqualifies function as a finality. I claim that true finality in nature is exemplified by the Second Law of thermodynamics. Assuming that the universe is a thermodynamically isolated system, the Second Law qualifies in the context of the Big Bang scenario because it references the pull of a continually receding future of ever sparser energy density. The attractor here is universal thermodynamic equilibrium, which could only be attained in an ever-receding long run.
Publication details
DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-45920-2_5
Full citation:
Salthe, S. N. (2016)., Habit-taking, final causation, and the big bang theory, in M. Anderson (ed.), Consensus on Peirce's concept of habit, Dordrecht, Springer, pp. 83-88.
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