Meanings
- uncountablehuman sciencesReluctance or refusal to ascribe purpose to natural phenomena.
[…]the teleophobia of biologists and physicists should not be carried over to the human sciences.
1960, “New Books”, in Philosophy, volume 35, number 1331 more example
In the period from Spinoza to the end of the 19th century, the reading of design into nature received such devastating attacks from naturalists to non-naturalists alike that there developed an epistemological neurosis which Von Baer aptly termed “teleophobia.”
[1952, D. Maurice Allan, “Towards a Natural Teleology”, in The Journal of Philosophy, volume 49, number 13, →DOI
Origin
- Ancient Greekτέλος“purpose”
- GermanTeleophobie
- Englishteleophobia
From German Teleophobie in the late 19th century. The OED considers the word modern Latin, but the earliest appearance is in the writing of Karl Ernst von Baer in German in the 1860s. Whatever the immediate source it can be analyzed as teleo- + -phobia, from Ancient Greek τέλος (télos, “purpose”) + -φοβία (-phobía, “-phobia”).
More words from German, Ancient Greek
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
teleophobia. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/teleophobia
“teleophobia.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/teleophobia. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “teleophobia,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/teleophobia.
Source: teleophobia on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.