ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author distinguishes between goal-achieving, goal-seeking, goal-directed and intentional behavior. The simple teleological hypothesis implies that the rat aims to get the food at all costs and will fail only on account of insurmountable obstacles. People readily form teleological hypotheses about their own behavior, about the behavior of other people, and about the behavior of animals. A goal-achieving system is one which can recognize the goal once it is arrived at, but the process of arriving at the goal is determined by the environmental circumstances. Ethological explanation of animal behavior seeks an account in terms of both proximal cause and evolutionary function. It is clear that, from an evolutionary point of view, there are situations in which animals are designed to deceive others, and so gain sexual, social, or political advantage.
