Telos (τέλος) — “End,” “purpose,” “completeness.” In Aristotelian philosophy, the telos is the final cause — that toward which a thing tends by its nature. Teleology is explanation by final causes: the heart exists to pump blood; the human being exists to achieve eudaimonia. Kant denies that nature can be explained teleologically in the strict sense (that would attribute intention to nature), but admits the regulative use of teleology in biology. Darwinism replaces teleology with mechanisms of random causation and selection.
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