xgunther i had trouble with your question “How does a tree “know” how to be a tree?” Well, Can trees “know” anything at all, is that a property of theirs (to not be able to know)?
I don’t believe trees can know what they are. Things are what we perceive them to be. The tree, to me, really doesn’t need an idea of purpose in the metaphysical sense. It has a physical purpose.
Metaphysically speaking i think your question really is asking “what is the essence of things?” Instead of ‘how does a tree know how to be a tree,’ it should be what makes a tree a tree.
Think about this: If were to take the “idea or purpose” of that tree by some extremely odd means (super powers I don’t know) and swap it with this hard-drive does that make my hard-drive’s purpose the purpose of a tree? and vice-versa, does the tree now serve the same purpose as my hard-drive once did?
that is quite absurd. In actuality, the “essence” of things has a horse load of theories and arguments including Liebniz, Locke, Spinoza, and especially Russell in “The Problems of Philosophy.”