teleological
adjective
ˌte-
Did you know?
Perhaps teleological was destined to serve a role in English. The word, along with its close relative teleology, comes to us by way of New Latin, from the Greek root telos, meaning "end or purpose." Both entered English in the 18th century, followed by teleologist in the 19th century. Teleology has the basic meaning of "the study of ends or purposes." A teleologist attempts to understand the purpose of something by looking at its results. A teleological philosopher might argue that we should judge whether an act is good or bad by seeing if it produces a good or bad result, and a teleological explanation of evolutionary changes claims that all such changes occur for a definite purpose.
Examples of teleological in a Sentence
Stephen D. Krasner, Foreign Affairs, 10 Feb. 2020
In Hunt’s view, the challenge is to give the new global history more theoretical heft and coherence without resorting to teleological or narrowly Western-centric notions of modernity.
—Foreign Affairs, 15 Dec. 2014
This catalog for an ingenious exhibition in Madrid arranges dozens of modernist paintings, plus African sculpture and Japanese woodblocks, in the exact order Barr mapped them — revealing the ambitions, and also limitations, of a teleological art history.
—Roberta Smith, New York Times, 26 Nov. 2020
Contrast Defoe’s confident, teleological, early-eighteenth-century Puritanism.
—James Wood, The New Yorker, 19 Sep. 2022
How else to make sense of a world without any intrinsic narrative, no teleological release?
—Emma Cline, The New Yorker, 23 Dec. 2021
From the rally scene on, Ahmed takes it more or less as a given that progress is cyclical, not teleological.
—Lily Meyer, The Atlantic, 12 Aug. 2021
Western Marxists had already seen their teleological view of history reduced to ruin.
—Andrew Stuttaford, National Review, 30 July 2021
In this sense, history is not only rational but also providential: designed, purposive, teleological.
—James Wood, The New Yorker, 25 May 2020
Dictionary Entries Near teleological
Cite this Entry
“Teleological.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/teleological. Accessed 23 Nov. 2024.
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teleological
adjective
ˌtēl-
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