BEHAVIOR (Purposive)
| Collection | International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics |
|---|---|
| Year | 2004 |
| Vol. (num.) | 2(1) |
| ID | ◀ 261 ▶ |
| Object type | General information, Human sciences |
A. RAPOPORT observes that: “…mathematical analysis shows that the apparently purposeful behavior of the system is a consequence strictly deduced from the fact that it is open, not closed” (1966, p.8).
In effect, the need to process specific inputs of energy, matter or information in accordance with the internal nature of the system implies a behavior oriented toward the maintenance of defined internal parameters. This does not necessarily impose consciousness, and even less so, teleology.
We would probably have to distinguish between two types of purposive behaviors. The first one is, in animals, non-conscious purposive behavior (another semantic trap!) and the second is man's, based on symbolic capability (crf. L.von BERTALANFFY, 1967), that should be called purposeful.
Evolutionary differenciation seems to bear on a steadily growing capability to create new behavior within the reference frame of an already globally installed understanding of environment as well as invironment.
Such a capacity could be a result of the growing variety of effective and of potential neural interconnections in the brain, which provide the possibility of practically unlimited recombinations.