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to suppose that a process is not teleological (or directed toward an end) because we do not detect a purpose," meaning by ''purpose" a conscious intention, by "end" the result of a process or movement. The consistent use of "purpose" for consciously intended results, and of "end" for the result of a process, whether intended or not, would be conducive to clarity and make a teleological worldview more acceptable. "End" is the more inclusive category. All purposes, except possibly the most trivial, are directed toward ends, but not all ends are consequences of foreseeing purposes. Flowering is the end of a plant's growth, a teleological process, but not its purpose, unless we attribute thought to vegetation. Pervaded by harmonization, the cosmos has ends (possibly an inclusive end) but not purposes, except in the restricted areas where we can detect, or infer, the presence of foreseeing minds, as in humans and probably the more intelligent animals.

In a critical chapter on "The Multiple Meanings of Teleological," Ernst Mayr (1988) threw new light upon this difficult subject. In the programmed processes of organisms, which he calls "teleonomic," the great philosophical evolutionist recognizes "the teleological aspect of the living world." He tentatively defines "program" as "coded or prearranged information that controls a process (or behavior) leading it toward a given end." A program includes not only the blueprint but also the instructions of how to use the

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information it contains. Programs may be minutely detailed, as appears to be true of those that control embryological development, or open, subject to modification by learning, experience, or insights, as in the overt behavior of animals, or the more intelligent of them. These teleonomic programs are encoded in the DNA of the nuclei, where over the generations they were evolved, in relation to the organism's structure and needs, by the usual processes of mutation and selection. According to this interpretation, nest building, incubation, and other parental activities of a bird are details of a teleonomic process, the end of which is the rearing of fledglings. The southward migration of a northern bird in autumn is likewise teleonomic, to avoid the rigors of a cold winter. These and similar activities do not necessarily involve conscious purpose or foresight; but as some are demonstrably improved by learning, foresight might not be absent.

Although, not without opposition, liberal-minded biologists attribute a degree of teleology to the living world, its ascription to the cosmos as a whole is vehemently rejected by many contemporary philosophers and especially workers in the physical sciences. Nevertheless, I believe we may recognize in inorganic nature something analogous to the programmed activities of organisms. Atoms are social beings with strong tendencies to join others. Their sociality is of two kinds, undiscriminating and discriminating. The former is manifest in gravitation, which, aided by the medium that contains them, space, draws them together in great masses, irrespective of their kinds, and with an intensity determined only by the magnitude of these aggregationsthe greater the crowd, the more eagerly the atoms appear to join it.

The discriminating sociality, sometimes called "chemical affinity," impels atoms to unite closely with certain other atoms or combinations of them, while avoiding union with others. Operating on a grand scale, the undiscriminating sociality of atoms condenses vast clouds of cosmic gasses and dust into stars, planets, and their satellites. Only on the surfaces of some of these planets, neither too hot nor too cold, enveloped in an atmosphere neither too dense nor too rare, can atoms give full play to their selective sociality, forming

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a great variety of salts and crystals and, in a watery medium, the very complex molecules of living organisms.

The social atoms unite in formation of increasing amplitude, complexity, and coherencethe process of harmonization. Among those of greatest