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TELEOLOGY (Gr. Taos, end)

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Originally appearing in Volume V26, Page 542 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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TELEOLOGY (Gr. Taos, end) , in See also:philosophy and See also:theology, strictly that See also:branch of study which considers " final causes " as real principles of explanation, i.e. which explains things as existing solely as pre-requisites of the results which they produce. More commonly the See also:term is applied to the See also:doctrine that the universe as a whole has been planned on a definite See also:design, or at least that it tends towards some end. The term has been used very loosely, and its meaning has changed considerably. The See also:root See also:idea arises from the See also:analogy of the acts of human beings which are observed to have certain purposes: hence it was natural to assume that the whole sum of existence with its amazing complexity and its orderly progress can be explained only on the See also:assumption of a similar See also:plan devised by a conscious See also:agent. Such a view is essential to any theistic view of the universe which postulates See also:God as the Creator, omniscient and all-See also:good. The See also:modern theory of See also:evolution, on the other See also:hand, has reintroduced a scientific teleology of another type. This is discussed, from the biologist's point of view, in the See also:article See also:ZOOLOGY. Teleology, in this narrower sense, as the study of the See also:adaptation of organic structures to the service of the organisms in which they occur, was completely revolutionized by Darwinism and the See also:research founded on it.

End of Article: TELEOLOGY (Gr. Taos, end)

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