teleology

plural teleologies

1. uncountablehuman sciencesThe study of the design or final purpose of natural occurrences, that is, of such occurrences being the result of intention instead of prior causes.

   The received intellectual tradition has it that, in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, revolutionary philosophers began to curtail and reject the teleology of the medieval and scholastic Aristotelians, abandoning final causes in favor of a purely mechanistic model of the Universe.

   2008, Monte Ransom Johnson, “Historical Background to the Interpretation of Aristotle’s Teleology”, in Julia Annas, Lindsay Judson, editors, Aristotle on Teleology (Oxford Aristotle Studies), Oxford, Oxfordshire: Clarendon Press, →ISBN, part I (Teleology as a Critical Explanatory Framework), pages 23–24

   1. broadlyuncountablehuman sciencesDesign, final purpose, or intention in a natural occurrence; (countable) an assertion or instance of this.

      Their proposed explanation at the time was riddled with teleology.

      1 more example

      In short, what every student of biology knows – that within nature there is a teleology having to do with the survival of the species which underpins the distinction between the two sexes and produces between them a natural affinity for one another – no surgeon who knows what is good for him may now say.

      2011 April 17, Paul A[nthony] Rahe, “Truths You Cannot Utter”, in Ricochet, archived from the original on 27 Mar 2022

      Antonyms: dysteleology

2. uncountablelifestyleThe belief or theory that a natural occurrence is the result of divine design or intention rather than the laws of nature or science; theoteleology; (countable) a particular belief or theory of this sort.