Habit-taking, final causation, and the big bang theory

Stanley N. Salthe

pp. 83-88

in: Myrdene Anderson (ed), Consensus on Peirce's concept of habit, Berlin, Springer, 2016

Abstract

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.

Cited authors

Peirce Charles Sanders