Sparhafoc said:Turritopsis nutricula
And I am not really sure that degenerating back to chemicals and atoms is best described teleologically, rather that there are competing physical forces which cause that result regardless of the best efforts by life. Life's 'purpose' is to temporarily stave those forces off - fleeting pockets of entropic reduction - not to die.
That's not what I said, I think you misunderstand. So, try to think of it this way. When I say 'actuality' I'm talking about the 'form' which certain potentials result in. If I am a baby and proceed naturally, I will eventually develop into a man, which is the highest actualization of my prior potential as a baby boy. As a fully adult young man, developed to my highest degree in all facets, I reach my apex, my point to which I am in 'top form.' After that, I begin to slowly decline. in other words, I not only fall away from this actuality which is my form but also loses the potential to grain back that actuality. Aging, for instance, is a process of accumulated damage, which destroys the ability to maintain that actuality which is my form. And I begin to degenerate, and eventually die, and decay, at which point I am entirely recycled.
Aristotle gives an example of an acorn. He says the acorn tree is the actuality to which the acorn seed is a potential. The seed grows towards it's highest form, which is the tree. The tree reaches its apex, and then it begins the processes of aging and eventually death.
The 'purpose' is its form, that is, the highest development of its potential, the actuality in other words. Form and actuality within this relationship of cyclic potential, IS the purpose.
Now you mentioned staving off entropy. Sure, that is 'part' of it, but again, that is very 'reductionistic.' You are looking at a 'part' of the process, but not the 'whole.' as distributed through time. If you were an acorn seed, your purpose would be to become an acorn tree. Once that has been fulfilled, you have achieved your 'end.'Same for a human. Your purpose is to become an adult and achieve that end.
Edit: As for the idea of opposing physical forces, again that is just 'part' of what defines the process, part of what contextualizes the potential towards which the actuality is the aim/end, prior to degradation towards a repeat of potential in the orderly cycle. So indeed there are opposing aspects to the process, but you must look at all of this 'as a whole in time.' What is the 'form' of the process, and there you find what the end which function aims at, which is the actuality of the potential? That is the form, which is the 'purpose' in terms of the relation between various aspects of the process in time which includes various opposing distinctions.