Teleology

Teleology (pronounced tel-ee-ol-uh-jee or tee-lee-ol-uh-jee)

(1) In philosophy, the study of final causes; the doctrine that final causes exist; the belief that certain phenomena are best explained in terms of purpose rather than cause (a moral theory that maintains that the rightness or wrongness of actions solely depends on their consequences is called a teleological theory).

(2) The study of the evidences of design or purpose in nature; such design or purpose; in the cult of intelligent design, the doctrine that there is evidence of purpose or design in the universe, and especially that this provides proof of the existence of a Designer

(3) The belief that purpose and design are a part of or are apparent in nature.

(4) In the cult of vitalism, the doctrine that phenomena are guided not only by mechanical forces but that they also move toward certain goals of self-realization.

(5) In biology, the belief that natural phenomena have a predetermined purpose and are not determined by mechanical laws

1728: From the New Latin teleologia a construct of the Ancient Greek τέλος (télos) (purpose; end, goal, result) genitive τέλεος (téleos) (end; entire, perfect, complete) + λόγος (lógos) (word, speech, discourse).  Teleology is a noun, teleological & teleologic are adjectives, teleologism & teleologist are nouns and teleologically is an adverb.; the noun plural is teleologies.

Christian von Wolff (circa 1740), mezzotint by Johann Jacob Haid (1704-1767).

Although teleology concepts had been discussed in the West (and likely too elsewhere) since at least antiquity, the word teleology appears first in Philosophia rationalis, sive logica (Rational philosophy or logic), a work published in 1728 by German philosopher Baron Christian von Wolff (1679-1754), an author whose writings cover an extraordinary range in formal philosophy, metaphysics, ethics and mathematics.  He used the word to mean something like "the study of stuff in terms of purpose and final cause" and were it not for the way in which Immanuel Kant’s (1724-1804) work has tended to be the intellectual steamroller which has flattened the history of German Enlightenment rationality, he’d probably now be better remembered beyond the profession.

Teleological Ethical Theories

Ethical Egoism posits that an action is good if it produces or is likely to produce results that maximize the person’s self-interest as defined by him, even at the expense of others.  It is based on the notion that it is always moral to promote one’s own good, but at times avoiding the personal interest could be a moral action too. This makes the ethical egoism different from the psychological egoism which holds that people are self-centred and self-motivated and perform actions only with the intention to maximize their personal interest without helping others, thereby denying the reality of true altruism.  Utilitarianism theory holds that an action is good if it results in maximum satisfaction for a large number of people who are likely to get affected by the action.  Eudaimonism is a teleological theory which holds an action is good if it results in the fulfilment of goals along with the welfare of the human beings.  In other words, the actions are said to be fruitful if it promotes or tends to promote the fulfilment of goals constitutive of human nature and its happiness.

Lindsay Lohan and her layer in court, Los Angeles, December 2011.

At the first of the Nuremberg trials, convened to try two-dozen odd  of the senior surviving Nazis, one of the criticisms of the conceptual model adopted by the US prosecution team under Justice Robert Jackson (1892–1954; US Supreme Court Justice 1941-1954; Chief US Prosecutor at the Nuremberg (IMT) trials of Nazi war criminals 1945-1946) was that it was teleological: "the final crimes being implicit in the very origins of the regime".  His approach was of benefit to historians and added to the drama (and sometimes the tedium) of the event but was viewed by the British team, all highly experienced trial lawyers, as a needless diversion from the core business of simply winning the cases.

As a concept in philosophy, teleology can be applied practically or in the abstract to the study of purpose or design in natural phenomena.  Because the idea of teleology is there is (or can be) some inherent purpose or goal in the development and existence of things and events, it implies they are (at least sometimes) directed toward realizing that purpose.  As a tool of philosophers it can be helpful because usually it's contrasted with a mechanistic world view in which everything in the universe exists (or is perceived) as a series of cause-and-effect interactions with no inherent purpose.  Teleology is thus ultimately one extreme of a spectrum onto which observations and theories can be mapped, shifting around as need be.  Well and good, but teleological arguments do seem to exert a powerful attraction on those with some point to make, notably among those who like to assert the existence of a purposeful creator or designer of the universe and these people are inclined to conflate elegance of argument with proof.  Ultimately, the application of teleology can provide a framework of arguments for conclusions which, however audacious and compelling, remain wholly speculative and there is the suspicion that the internal logic which a teleological map can lend does lead some to be convinced of what are, just arguments.  Advances in knowledge have in some fields have diminished the appeal.  There was a time when in the biological sciences, teleology was associated with the notion vitalism which held that living organisms possess a purpose or life force guiding their development and their role on the planet (and presumably the universe).  More recently however, the functionality and complexity of life has come to be understood through evolutionary processes, genetics, and natural selection, there being neither the need nor any apparent evidence for a predetermined purpose.